Eggplant (aubergine), chickpea, and tomato bake (Musaqa'a)

Do you have eggplants growing at home in your hot Summer garden? If you do, this is the Mediterranean recipe for you. If you also have some tomatoes growing, well you are really on a winner. Otherwise, buy the vegetables all preferably at the local market to guarantee freshness, and then this is the perfect vegetarian dish, or serve it as a delicious side with the meat of your choice. To my friends in the Northern Hemisphere, this is a very comforting Mediterranean style dish to enjoy in the middle of your Winter. It is a cinch to  make.

The eggplants that I used are from our garden. We have three eggplant bushes which produced enough for this recipe. This is the first batch of eggplant we have picked from them, so I was thrilled to come home from holidays last week and find them. This Palestinian dish is a hearty, filling and very nutritious dish and it goes a long way. It also reheats brilliantly as leftovers for lunch the following day, and the day after that. This recipe is originally from a book called Falastin by Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley, published by Ebury. I found it republished in Delicious magazine.

 I've taken a few liberties with the original recipe, based on what ingredients I had on hand, but I've tried to give you the original ingredients and my substitutions. I also added a topping of panko breadcrumbs and grated cheese, because I love a golden cheese topping, who doesn't?

Ingredients:

1.25 kg very fresh eggplant or aubergine (around 5 small to medium eggplants)

120 ml olive oil

1 onion

6 garlic cloves crushed (optional) 

1 tsp chilli flakes or according to taste(also optional)

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (I substituted 1 teaspoon baharat)

2 (200 g total weight)  green capsicum, or 1 large, deseeded and cut into 3 cm pieces

400 g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 1/2 teaspoon tomato puree

400 g can chopped tomatoes

1 1/2 tsp caster sugar

2 tbs coriander or parsley, roughly chopped plus extra to serve

4 Roma tomatoes, sliced 1 1/2 cm thick

Grated full fat cheese and Panko breadcrumbs for the topping, about 2 cups of each

Method:

Preheat your oven to 220 deg. C fan-forced.

Use a large baking dish, about 20 cm x 30 cm.

Cooking the eggplant:

Using a sharp knife or a vegetable peeler, peel strips of the eggplant skin from the vegetable, from top to bottom. A striped zebra came to mind when I did this. Then slice the eggplant into 2cm thick slices, widthways.  Place those slices into a largish bowl, mix with 75 ml of the  EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil), 1 teaspoon salt, and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Spread the slices out on two large baking trays lined with baking paper. Put the trays in the oven, and bake for about 30 minutes until completely softened and lightly browned. Remove the slices from the oven and set them aside. Keep an eye on them, they might not need the full 30 minutes, it's oven dependent.

N.B. This step could be done the day before and the eggplant stored in separated layers in a covered container in the frig. to save time.

Reduce the oven to 180 deg. C fan-forced.

Making the sauce:

Pour 2 tablespoons of EVOO into a large saucepan on a medium-high heat.

Cook the onion in the oil for about 7 minutes until nicely softened and very lightly browned.

Add the garlic, chilli, cumin and cinnamon (or baharat) and the tomato puree and cook for another minute. It should be fragrant with those beautiful spices by now. 

Add the chickpeas, capsicum, tinned tomatoes or substitute for the tinned tomatoes a good quality tomato pasta sauce or passata, sugar and 200 ml of water.  Add 1 1/4 tsp of salt and a good grind of black pepper. 

On a medium heat cook for 18 minutes or until the capsicum should be cooked through. Stir in the coriander or parsley and remove the pan from the stove.

Assembling your dish:

Lay out half the roasted eggplant and half the roma tomatoes on the base of a large baking dish, about 20cm x 30 cm.

Spoon the chickpea mixture over the top of the eggplant and tomatoes, and then layer with the rest of the tomatoes and eggplant. 

Drizzle over the remaining tbs of oil, then cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove the dish from the oven and remove the foil. This is where I added the breadcrumbs and grated cheese in that order and returned the dish to the oven until the cheese was golden, about another 20 minutes.

Or alternatively just return the dish to the oven and bake for another 20 minutes until the sauce is bubbling and the tomatoes have softened. 

Remove your dish from the oven and leave to cool for about 20 minutes.

Garnish with the remaining coriander or parsley and serve warm or at room temperature.

My variations to the recipe:

• I used 2 red capsicum instead of green, it was what I had on hand. It really doesn't matter.'
• Instead of using a can of chopped tomatoes and a small amount of tomato puree, I used a whole 500 g bottle of Tomato and Eggplant Puree which I bought during our recent travels. (See my previous post of In My Kitchen, January 2024.)  This was a perfect substitute.
• I substituted parsley for the coriander.
• I used 2 teaspoons of my homemade Sweet Chilli Jam and 1/2 teaspoon of chilli flakes instead of 1 teaspoon chilli flakes.

Cooks notes:

• I know some people can't tolerate much garlic, and I only added two garlic cloves  and that was enough. I think this dish is still tasty enough without it but fresh garlic does add that extra flavour umami to most dishes like this.
• Also be careful with the amount of chilli flakes you use, if you know you love the heat of chilli, well by all means add the full teaspoon, otherwise I would start with 1/2 teaspoon.  I added 2 teaspoons of my homemade Sweet Chilli Jam (also able to be purchased), plus 1/4 teaspoon of chill flakes and that was the perfect amount of heat for us. However this dish isn't dependant on using chilli flakes.
• I cooked the chickpeas myself, which always gives the dish a little more texture. However canned chickpeas are fine.
• You will notice that I used Baharat instead of cinnamon (mainly because I had run out of cinnamon) but Baharat is a Middle Eastern spice that works beautifully in a dish like this one. I also use it a lot instead of Mixed Spice.
• Parsley will also substitute well for the coriander. I know that some folk just can't abide coriander.
• Like me, you probably saw similarities between this dish and a vegetable lasagne, minus the pasta sheets and bechamel sauce. For a variation, and in a larger dish, this could easily be converted to a hearty vegetable lasagne, using layers of fresh lasagne sheets and either some ricotta cheese or thickened sour cream for the cheesy layer.
• There is lots of room for variation with a recipe like this one, much more than there is when cooking a cake or a sweet pie.

It's Australia Day today, the 26th January, and as I already had this post organised, this is what I have posted rather than a typical Australian meal, even though I have quite a few of those already on this blog. On reflection about this though, this recipe also typifies just how multicultural Australia has become. We are one of the most multicultural countries in the world, and our cuisine reflects that. 

We are very lucky.

The cyclone I referred to in my last post crossed the coast last night North of Townsville, which is about 394 km by car. Cyclones are so unpredictable that it could just as easily have travelled further south and crossed the coast closer to us, however this time thankfully we have been spared.  Cyclone Kirrily is still bringing us gusty conditions today and a few rain showers and a lot of humidity, but it is very bearable. The power loss in Townsville is widespread causing a lot of difficulties in the region at the moment. Our thoughts are with them.

Happy cooking,

Warm regards

Pauline