Veggie Stuffed Eggplant

There is  greek diner where we always used to eat.  We ate there so often, all the staff knew us by name (sort of like Norm at Cheers).

Typically, every Sunday, the extended family would meet there for dinner (so usually about ten of us).  Other times, it was just Tim and I, his sister and our nephew (an adult).  The staff were awesome: they knew who drank iced tea, who ordered club sodas and who wanted the dressing on the side.

Every once in a while though, we got together in way smaller groups.

One night in the middle of the week, my SIL and I met there for dinner.  We were seated at the table of one of our regular servers who had our drinks on the table even before we sat down.

“No husband’s tonight?” she enquired.

Puzzled as to who she thought my SIL’s husband was since she is not married, we gave a vague, “Oh no not tonight, everyone is working late.”

“I know you come in here with the whole family on Sunday, but usually all the other times, you are with your husbands.” she pressed.

And then it dawned on us.  She thought our nephew was Rose’s husband.

“Ewwwww,” Rose burst out when the server left the table.  “Married?  To him?  I used to change his diaper!  How old does she think he is?  What, is she blind?”

Naturally, I couldn’t wait to share the story with him.

“Yep, she totally thought you were Rose’s husband, although now that I think about it, I’m not really sure who was being insulted there.”

His response,? “I want a divorce.”

Ingredients:

• 2-3 small (or 1-2 medium) eggplants
• 3/4 cup chickpeas, drained, rinsed and dried
• 1 cup bite-sized cauliflower florets
• 1  1/2 cups diced tomatoes (or about 24 grape tomatoes cut in half)
• 6 cloves sliced garlic
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 2 teaspoons dried parsley or 2 Tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• feta (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Cut each of the eggplants in half lengthwise. Using a spoon (a grapefruit spoon with the seated edges works best here), hollow out the halves, leaving 1/4 inch around the edges.  Dice the eggplant pieces you just removed into bite-sized pieces.  Salt the eggplant cubes and shells and allow the bitterness to drain out for 20 minutes (put them in a strainer in the sink if you have a large enough strainer, otherwise, you can put them on paper towels).
3. Meanwhile, combine the chickpeas, cauliflower, tomatoes, garlic, onions, parsley, lemon juice, olive oil and a few pinches of salt and pepper in a medium bowl.
4. Rinse the eggplant when it has drained and add the eggplant pieces to the bowl, stirring to combine.
5. Place the shells in a baking pan and fill them with the mixture.  Add 1/4 cup of water to the bottom of the pan, then cover the pan tightly with foil and bake for 1 hour.
6. Remove the pan from the oven, uncover, and if you are using real feta, sprinkle it on the top of the eggplants.  (I use vegan feta, and I haven’t found a brand yet that can stand up to a lot of heat without melting into pure oil, so I add it right before serving).  Return the eggplants to the oven for 15 more minutes, uncovered.

Enjoy!