A simple eggplant stew recipe inspired by the late summer nights and Mediterranean flavours - olives, capers and oregano. Bold and fresh flavours. This recipe can be made in a slow cooker or an instant pot. Serve this stew with rice, couscous, quinoa or even warmed naan bread for a healthy plant-based meal.
More vegetarian summer stew recipes, check out this golden chickpea stew or summer succotash
This eggplant stew is so simple. Seriously toss everything into a slow cooker and just let it go for a while. Walk away and come back to dinner. It's a beautiful thing.
And during the summer months, it totally works. A rich and bold stew totally works in the summer. Olive and capers add fresh summer flavours. And because you can make the whole thing in a slow cooker or instant pot, you can get dinner on the table without heating up the kitchen on a hot summer day.
And if you forget to get this started in the slow cooker, you can through everything into your instant pot and dinner will be ready in about 30 minutes. Cook some quinoa while the instant pot does its thing. Or just warm up some naan or pita bread to sop up the flavourful juices.
Slowcooker Mediterranean eggplant stew
To make this eggplant stew in a slow cooker, add diced eggplant, canned tomatoes, a chopped red pepper, white wine, garlic, chili flakes, oregano and capers into the insert of a slow cooker.
Set the slow-cooker on high heat and set for 3 hours. The eggplant will be completely tender, the red peppers sweet and soft and all the flavours will have come together in a fragrant and rich broth.
After 3 hours in the slow cooker on high heat, add the chickpeas and olives and continue to cook on high heat for another 15 minutes or until the chickpeas and olives are heated through.
That it's serve!
Instant pot directions
Through everything into the instant pot except for the olives. Set pressure to high for 4 minutes. Lock lid and allow instant pot to come to pressure. Once cooking time is complete, let the pressure release naturally for about 10 minutes. Remove lid and stir in the olives.
Serve!
How to serve
This stew makes a rich, tomato broth and you will want to serve it with something to sop up all those delicious juices.
Quinoa, rice or any other whole grain are fantastic.
In the summer for the most casual of dining, I love to serve this stew with light and fluffy couscous. Couscous takes no time to cook at all. You can get it started just after you stir in the olives and chickpeas.
Naan or pita bread is awesome as well and don't require a separte cooking pot.
Cooking eggplant
Let's talk about eggplant. Eggplant often gets labelled difficult to cook, bland or bitter. It's one of my favourite vegetables.
Some recipes call for the eggplant to be salted and drained before cooking. Usually, this involves slicing or dicing the eggplant first, sprinkling it generously with salt and letting it sit for at least 30 minutes before rinsing and patting it dry. We salt eggplant to remove excess moisture and some of its bitterness. However eggplant varieties today are not as bitter as they used to be. So salting is not necessary in most recipes. If the recipe calls for frying the eggplant, salting before frying can be helpful to remove excess moisture so you get a better caramelization. In recipes like this one, where the eggplant is served in a sauce or stewed, salting first is not necessary.
No. You do not need to salt eggplant before cooking for this recipe. As the eggplant will be stewed, salting and draining first adds not benefit.
Any kind you have! All varieties of eggplant are fairly intechangeable and have a similar flavour profile. I used one large purple globe eggplant in this recipe. Globe eggplants are the dark purple ones most often available in grocery stores. I find the small and long Asian varieties more tender and milder in flavour. But feel free to use any variety you have. The light purple and round Italian varieties work just as well. Whilte or striped all good. You will just about 1 lb of eggplant.
Eggplant and Chickpea Stew
Ingredients
- 1 large eggplant ½ inch diced
- 2 cans fire roasted diced tomatoes 398ml cans
- ¾ cup vegetable stock
- ¼ cup white wine (or more stock) or more vegetable stock
- ½ tsp salt sea salt
- ½ tsp chilli flakes
- 1 tsp oregano
- 2 tbsp capers
- ½ cup kalamata olives your choice, whole & pitted or sliced
- 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas one 15 oz can
- 1 red pepper small dice
- 2 cloves garlic pressed or crushed
- parsley for serving
Instructions
Slow cooker instructions
- Throw all ingredients exept olives and chickpeas in the insert of the slowcooker and set for high heat and cook for 3 hours.After 3 hours, stir in chickpeas and olives and continue to cook on high heat until heated through, about 15 minutes. Serve over couscous, rice or quinoa.
Instant Pot Instructions
- Throw all ingredients except olives into the insert of the instant pot, secure lid to locked position with vent closed. Set to cook on high pressure for 5 minutes. Allow pressure to release naturally for at least 10 minutes. Stir in olives. Serve over couscous, quinoa or rice.
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