Recipes

Quick Stewed Eggplant with Coconut

Note: This stewed eggplant recipe comes to us from Hawa Hassan. You can find this amazing recipe and many others from her forthcoming cookbook “In Bibi’s Kitchen: The Recipes and Stories of Grandmothers from the Eight African Countries that Touch the Indian Ocean.”

This stewed eggplant recipe is quick, easy, affordable, and healthy—the things we all seem to look for these days. It’s one of those dishes you can throw together after work and just eat with rice or flatbread or make part of a more elaborate meal with other vegan dishes.

Ingredients

2 lbs eggplant (about 2 large), cut into 2-inch pieces
1 large red onion, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 jalapeños, stemmed and thinly sliced (use less or leave out if you don’t want things too spicy)
¼ tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp kosher salt
½ c full-fat unsweetened coconut milk

Instructions

Place the eggplant, onion, bell pepper, garlic, jalapeños, turmeric, salt, and coconut milk in a large pot and stir well to combine.
Set over high heat and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the eggplant is tender, about 10 minutes.
Season the eggplant to taste with salt and serve immediately.

Recipe Notes and Variations

Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a few days and re-warmed in a heavy pot set over low heat (stir while you heat).
This recipe is very forgiving! Don’t have green bell pepper? Throw in a red one.
Forgot to check the pot on the stove while you started doing something else? It’s not the end of the world — the eggplant will just get silkier if it cooks a little longer.
Feel free to also throw in some extra vegetables like thinly sliced carrots, chopped okra, or diced sweet potatoes.
If you’re not sold on eggplant yet, be sure to read our 4 tips for how to make eggplant delicious.