A creamy vegan and gluten free eggplant ragout recipe with chickpeas and tomatoes. Perfect for a weeknight meatless meal served over quinoa.
I go back and forth with eggplant.
Do I love it? Is it just meh?
My feelings seem to be very volatile. If I find a good eggplant recipe the relationship thrives, but then I try an eh one and we’re broken up again. Currently we’re back together – saved by this delicious vegan and gluten free eggplant ragout.
Stewed eggplant in a tomato based sauce with chickpeas is easy to make and makes for a great hearty meatless meal. For that extra zing I added in some sun-dried tomato pesto, just because the world is better with pesto in it.
Agree or disagree? I’m all about pesto – as you can surely tell from my blog name and while I normally make basil pesto, sometimes I like to switch things up and make sun-dried tomato pesto instead. The sun-dried tomato pesto is a great addition to already tomato based recipes. It just enhances the tomato flavor further with the marinated and aromatic sun-dried tomatoes.
Did you know you can buy cannedย cherry tomatoes? I, for one most certainly didย not and was pleasantly surprised to find them on the grocery store shelf. I quickly tossed a few cans into the shopping cart – who knows when I’ll see this again. I seriously had never seen canned cherry tomatoes before – and they’re amazing!
The canned cherry tomatoes in this eggplant ragout are perfect. Regular diced tomatoes have lost all that juicyness inside once they got chopped up, but these little round balls are still intact, and they have a bit of a softer taste than standard diced tomatoes.
This eggplant ragout is a hearty dish for a meatless meal or if you’re just looking for more gluten free meal ideas.
Let me know what you think of my eggplant ragout in the comments below!
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 long Asian eggplants (or 1 regular Italian eggplant) peeled, quartered and thinly sliced
- 1 can chickpeas rinsed and drained
- 1 can cherry tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon sugar to help cut the acidity of the tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon vegan sun-dried tomato pesto
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- salt to taste
- fresh basil slivered for garnish
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Heat pan over medium heat add oil and onion. Cook for a couple minutes and add garlic. Cook until aromatic.
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Add eggplant, cooking for 5-10 minutes.
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Add chickpeas, tomatoes, sugar, pesto, oregano, red pepper and salt to taste.
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Continue to cook for 15-20 minutes on low heat, stirring occasionally.
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Serve over quinoa and garnish with freshly slivered basil.
Recipe Adapted From Lexi's Clean Kitchen
Amy says
My family will love this!