leftovers

Some people don't care for leftovers... I like them.  They are easy to eat for lunch, they get more flavorful, and I like the challenge of creating something new with leftovers to use them up. 

This leftover story started with salmon, a side of chickpeas & kale, and a side of rice pilaf (a great item I found at costco that has lentils and all sorts of yummy things in it) as the original dinner.  The leftovers were kale & chickpeas and rice pilaf.  The new dish created was a tomato, eggplant, rice mixture I found quite delicious.  It was pretty heavy on the eggplant, so you must be a fan of eggplant to like this one (Chad is not so I ate it all :)).  The moral of the story is that it is very easy to turn a couple leftover items into a fun, new dish!

Eggplant with tomatoes, rice, and chickpeas

Ingredients:

(this is a very flexible dish, so the amount of all the veggies can be adjusted!):

2 small or 1 medium/large eggplant cubed

2 cloves garlic

1 onion chopped

1/2 tsp cumin *

1/2 tsp corriander *

1/2 tsp paprika *

1 c. marinara

1 c. chickpeas with sauted kale

1 - 1 1/2 c. cooked rice pilaf

1/4 c. chopped cilantro

Instructions:

Saute eggplant with garlic and onions in olive oil with salt & pepper and other seasonings for a few minutes until just slightly tender. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until eggplant is desired tenderness.  Add hot sauce if you like things spicey.  Garnish with cilantro.

* approximates - might want to use a little less at first and add more until you like the taste, or you might end up wanting more than 1/2 tsp of each seasoning