Well, it may not be the most beautiful dish in the world, but my whole family liked this cumin-filled rice, adapted from a recipe by Deborah Madison. It even had E. eating eggplant without even realizing it!
It’s based on the recipe “Cumin Rice with Eggplant and Peppers” in The Savory Way. Since it’s not a vegan book, Madison suggests adding cheese, but I opted to use peas instead. (Hey, at least it rhymes!) The seasonings are mostly the same, but I removed the oil and butter, omitted a red or yellow pepper that I did not have, and used an undrained can of diced tomatoes instead of fresh. The results were delicious. My only regret is that I did not wait until it came out of the oven to add the peas–after 50 minutes of baking, they’re not very green anymore. Oh well. They were still tender and tasty, but I’m instructing you to add them at the end. The heat from the rice will cook them enough and they’ll retain more of their spring-like taste and color.
Cumin Rice with Eggplant and Peas
Adapted from a recipe by Deborah Madison.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups brown rice
- 1 medium eggplant, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 green, yellow, or red bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes (fired roasted would be nice)
- 4 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne or red chilli pepper
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
- 3 cups water
- 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen (thawed) green peas
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F. Put the rice in a bowl and cover it with water. Set it aside to soak while you cook the vegetables.
- Heat a large non-stick skillet. Add the eggplant and onion, salt them lightly, and cook, covered, over medium-high heat, stirring often and adding water by the tablespoon if needed to prevent sticking. When the eggplant is soft but not mushy (about 5 minutes) add the peppers, tomatoes, seasonings, parsley, and more salt to taste. Combine well. Drain the water from the rice and add the rice to the pan along with 3 cups water. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil.
- When it reaches a boil, transfer it into a large baking dish. (Madison suggests a large earthenware gratin dish, but I used a deep lasagna dish.) Place a piece of parchment paper over the rice and then cover tightly with foil. Bake until the rice is tender, about 50-55 minutes. Stir in the peas and allow the dish to set for 5 minutes before serving.
Preparation time: 15 minute(s) | Cooking time: 1 hour(s) 5 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 6
Makes 4-6 servings. 1/6th of the recipe provides: 254 Calories (kcal); 2g Total Fat; (7% calories from fat); 8g Protein; 53g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 59mg Sodium; 6g Fiber
Suggested accompaniment: Asparagus is back in season, so I served this with a whole lot of simple roasted asparagus. Preheat the oven to 400F. Place trimmed asparagus in a large, oiled baking dish and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Roast, stirring every 5 minutes, for 10-15 minutes, until asparagus are just starting to brown. Heaven!
doemora
August 28, 2009 at 9:14 pmi just made this- i substituted trader joe's succotash (edamame, corn and red pepers) for the peas and peppers. then green of the edamame remained through the cooking- i added it to the dish before baking- absolutely fabulous!! i have turned a number of people onto good vegan/vegetarian food via your website. many thanks from the heart of the navajo reservation.
Anonymous
November 9, 2009 at 2:30 pmJust made this last night and while it was quite good, it came out way too spicy to be considered kid friendly in my family. I used cayenne, so next time I'll just cut that out completely, and maybe use just a tiny bit of chili powder. Watch the spice on this one. Mine came out with quite a kick.
Bex
July 9, 2010 at 5:36 pmMade this dish this evening. The only change was that I added a leek that needed using up.
Very tasty indeed, thank you Susan for once again posting a super recipe 🙂
Guy from Hoboken
September 26, 2010 at 6:14 pmMade this tonight and it came delicious. However, I altered the recipe a little:
-cut the required amount of cumin to two teaspoons instead of four. Cumin just has a strong flavor and felt that four would have overpowered it
– added one diced apple to it and baked it. Came out so good with the other flavors.
– cooked with vegetable stock instead of water. Added nice flavor.
All in all, fantastic dish!
Julie & Marty
June 20, 2011 at 9:23 pmWe had this tonight. It was very good. It will be a dish we make again! One could leave out the eggplant entirely, I didn’t feel it added much to the flavor, but as my husband said, leave it in because it is good for you!
Jessica
May 9, 2012 at 6:19 pmPerfect timing! I was looking for something to do with eggplant tomorrow evening.
mac1000
November 13, 2012 at 12:04 pmLOVE this website…please keep up the gooood work..!!!!
Sudie
July 26, 2013 at 7:22 pmI made this for dinner, but I used quinoa and it was delicious! This recipe is definitely a keeper. Thanks!
Donna D.
July 28, 2013 at 10:08 pmDo you think it would be possible to make a variation of this recipe in a crock pot? I know that rice is tricky that way, but it is simply WAY too hot to turn on the oven here in Puerto Rico. Any tips would be lovely. Thanks for always posting such great recipes.
Susan Voisin
July 28, 2013 at 10:13 pmYou could try looking up other recipes that cook rice in a crockpot to check how much liquid you need and then adapt this recipe. That’s my best suggestion since I’m not experienced in cooking rice in a crockpot.
Sally Rosloff
March 7, 2015 at 12:17 pmAnother keeper! Made this last night as written (except cut the onion in big pieces so I could pick out later, don’t do well eating them). Easy, delicious. Thank you!
Mr Cakes
May 19, 2015 at 2:50 amI have made this a few times now and it’s very tasty. My new favourite dish!
Kathryn M Dinwiddie
June 7, 2017 at 8:31 pmI made it according to your directions except I left the bell pepper out -didn’t have it on hand. I added the peas afterwards as you suggested. This was Awesome! It’s easy, filling, and the spice mix is perfect! Thank you 🙂