One-Pot Moroccan Eggplant and Chickpea Stew

The ingredients in this dish are really simple, all things that are easy to find, but the stew that comes out is pure comfort. The tomato puree lifts the whole tomato flavor, and the hot sauce adds even more depth!

- Chickpeas: Chickpeas are a really great source of plant-based protein. They’re also called garbanzo beans, and they’re rich in protein, amino acids, vitamins and more. They even make the superfood lists, so if you want to eat more protein, this is an ingredient you need to know. You can find canned chickpeas at supermarkets and big-box stores, or you can buy dried ones at a traditional market and cook them yourself. - Eggplant: Eggplant is such an underrated ingredient. A lot of my friends don’t like the taste of eggplant, and on top of that, traditional Chinese stir-fried eggplant is cooked with so much oil that it’s honestly not very good. I remember when we lived in Shanghai, Caesar and I loved going to Northeastern Chinese restaurants and ordering “di san xian” (stir-fried potato, eggplant, and pepper). Every time, out came a plate of potatoes and eggplant so oily they were shining. Just thinking about it now scares me! Eggplant is a really nutritious food, it’s available all year round, and it’s cheap. Stewing eggplant in tomato sauce not only uses much less oil, but because the eggplant soaks up all the tomato juices, it’s especially sweet and savory, and the flavor is easy to love. So I beg anyone who’s afraid of eggplant to give this a try!

Tomato sauce: something I keep at home all year round. After all, you can use it for pasta, pizza, salsa, soups, and more, and it keeps well. I like to use unseasoned tomato sauce, but if it’s hard to find, you can use one of the many pre-seasoned pasta sauces from the supermarket for this dish.

Tomato paste: another thing that’s always in my cupboard. It’s much thicker than tomato sauce. The difference between tomato paste and tomato sauce is that paste is cooked down for hours into a concentrate. Because its flavor is so rich, it adds depth to the tomato flavor. If you can’t find tomato paste, no problem: you can use a bit of ketchup instead, or just use tomato sauce to keep it fresh and sweet.

Sriracha: this hot sauce is awesome. Just a little bit boosts the savoriness, and it’s a really popular hot sauce. If you don’t have it, you can use any hot sauce you like instead.