January 18: Vegetable Jollof Rice

I had a problem today. It was a sick child and a lack of motivation. So, after taking my child to the doctor at 1:30 in the afternoon, I hung out at Walmart for at least an hour waiting on a prescription. Then, when I came home to start the dinner, I realized I had to chop an eggplant and let it sit in salt for a whole hour before I could even start cooking. So this meal didn't even get started until 5PM. Which is when my husband comes home from work. So I cheated. I put the mixture in a pot on the stove and cooked it for 25 minutes instead of 3 1/2 hours in the crockpot. Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly. Here is how I did it:

First I gathered up the ingredients:

 

Then I cut up an eggplant and salted it and let it drain for 1 hour. After the hour, I rinsed and drained the eggplant:

 

The eggplant was browned on all sides in 2 batches in a skillet:

 

It was removed to a plate, then onions, carrots, pepper, and garlic were cooked in the skillet for a few minutes:

 

All that was supposed to be put in the crockpot, but I put it in a large saucepan. Then I mixed in the rice, chili powder and salt:

 

I drained some tomatoes into a 1 quart measuring cup, added 2 cups of vegetable stock, and then filled it up with water to make a quart. All that and the tomatoes were added to the pot:

 

The cooked eggplant was put on top, and the whole thing cooked for 25-30 minutes.

 

I gave it a good stir and served it up:

 

I don't make vegetarian meals that often because they don't fill up DH. This was tasty, and it was very filling, to me. The first step of salting the eggplant took away it's bitterness. I really like eggplant most of the time. I didn't really need meat today, but I did eat quite a generous helping of this. My DH had some peanut butter and crackers just now to make up for the lack of meat, so it's all good.

 

There is a tip at the bottom of the page. It says, "Jollof Rice (also spelled "jolof" or sometimes "djolof") is an important dish in many West African cultures."

 

I know I made this on the stove, but I have no doubt it would have been just the same in the crockpot, so I'm counting it, even though I cheated a little!