Vegan recipe: garbanzos and eggplant

Chick peas with eggplant (vegetarian/vegan)

2 cups of dry chick peas (garbanzos)
1 small-medium eggplant, diced.
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 onion, chopped.
1/2 red pepper, chopped (optional)
1 tablespoon diced fresh ginger root (easy to grate in food processer and store the extra in the freezer)
1-2 tsp. ground cumin
2 cans (14 oz or 400g each) diced peeled tomatoes, pureed
chili pepper or "guindilla" or hot paprika
oil
salt
water
"chicken masala" spice mix or garam masala, if available

This recipe is based on cooking dried garbazos in a pressure cooker (30-45 minutes cooking time). If you prefer you can use frozen or canned chick peas, added at the same time as the eggplant.


Dry chick peas will need soaking overnight in warm water with a little baking soda added. Changing the water a few times softens them sooner.

After dicing the eggplant, put it in a colander and salt it heavily. Leave for about 10 minutes for the bitter juice to "sweat" out. Then rinse it well.

In deep pressure cooker, add oil and sautee the onion with the garlic and ginger root until onions are translucent (sautee pepper if used). Add cumin and sautee gently, along with any masala spice mix you wish to add, and hot paprika if used instead of chili or guindilla. Then add tomato puree, soaked garbanzos, and water to cover the chick peas with about 2cm (1 inch) of liquid covering the chick peas. Add guindilla (if used) and salt to taste. Then add the eggplant. Cook until garbanzos are tender (usually 30-45 minutes).
thanks to Heather! I don't use a pressure cooker, and I'd probably use canned garbanzos, but I love love love eggplant!