This week at Sunday Supper we are honoring our dads with Dad’s Favorite Recipes. While my dad loved all kinds of foods and dishes, I found this theme rather challenging. He loved all the Middle Eastern food my mother and grandmother made but I don’t recall a favorite. I do remember he loved anything with rice and thought of this eggplant beef stew. I remember my mom making it for him even though eggplant didn’t agree with her. I’m sure she did so to please him. Both of my parents have passed away but making this dish reminds me of both of them. I was lucky to have an awesome dad (and mom) and I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters that feel the same. So here you go Zac, this dish is for you.
I made this recently in my Instant Pot when my hubby was traveling because he is not a fan of eggplant. I am new to the Instant Pot but so far it’s a great cooking tool. Not only did it make this dish much easier, it also made it much quicker. The meat was so tender that I can’t wait to experiment with more stews and curries. So if you would prefer to make this recipe in a pressure cooker or slow cooker, I am sure it would work fine. I would just make sure to brown the meat first.
Above are two things I wanted to point out for this recipe. My family always ate holey rice. Holey rice is what my hubby calls it because when you lift the lid of the pan, you can see perfect little holes in the rice when it’s done. The yellow is from added turmeric and the pine nuts on top is how my family would serve rice on special occasions. I have a small obsession with pine nuts and love how they taste with rice and pasta. However neither the yellow holey rice nor the pine nuts are necessary. I just made my rice that way because that is how my dad would have liked it. Also the dish on the left is something that my mom did for both this recipe and her green bean stew which is very similar to this. She would crush her garlic and mix it with a bit of olive oil and a bit of ground coriander. She put it in the microwave for about 30 seconds and then added it to the stew at the end. I don’t know exactly why she did that, but it adds tons of flavor so I do it too. I just wanted to show you what it looks like because it’s kind of an unusual thing to do.
Eggplant Beef Stew
Today I won’t go into the steps of this recipe as we have a lot of great recipes for our dads below. This eggplant beef stew is pretty easy to make and one of my favorite meals too. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I’m sure my dad would. Thank you Sarah from The Chef Next Door for hosting and please scroll down below for more recipes from the Sunday Supper family. Happy Father’s Day Pop Pop. Love and miss you!
Eggplant Beef Stew #SundaySupper
Ingredients
- 1 lb beef cubed
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1 ½ cup beef stock or water
- 1 eggplant cubed
- 1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
- 1 6 oz can of tomato paste
- 2 cloves of garlic
- ¼ teaspoon ground coriander
Instructions
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Heat 1 Tablespoon of olive oil in a large pot and add your beef cubes.
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Sprinkle cinnamon, salt and pepper and brown meat a bit.
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Add broth or water, cover and simmer for 30 minutes until meat is tender. Check occasionally to make sure that there is enough liquid and the meat is not burning. Add more water or broth if necessary.
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Once the meat is cooked, add your eggplant, crushed tomatoes and tomato paste. Fill the tomato paste can with water and add that too.
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Mix well, cover and cook an additional 20 - 30 minutes more until the eggplant is soft.
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In the meantime add 1 teaspoon of oil, crushed garlic and coriander to a small microwaveable bowl. Heat in the microwave for 30 - 40 seconds until the garlic is fragrant but not burned.
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Add to the eggplant mixture 5 minutes before it is done. Mix well.
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If using pine nuts, roast over a low heat in a dry skillet. Make sure not to burn.
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Add the nuts on top of your rice and serve with the finished stew.
Christine says
This was so good! I love the cinnamon in this dish, I think it makes it! I also added some dried chilis (Calabrian and Aleppo) because I love the combo of cinnamon with spice. I served it on top of creamy polenta because I was craving that but next time I’ll serve it with rice. I could see raisins working in this stew…maybe I’ll add some next time.
Denise says
Hi Christine, so glad you liked it. I too love cinnamon in dishes like this. It’s what I grew up with and it’s delicious IMO. Thanks for sharing your tips as well. I’ll have to give the polenta a try!
Hillary says
What cut if beef do you use?
Denise says
Hi Hillary
I use stew meat or top round beef or even chuck roast sometimes. They should all cook the same way if they are cut into pieces. Hope that helps!
Emily says
If I did this in the instant pot, would you just brown the meat and then put all the other ingredients in an cook for 30 minutes? Would that turn the eggplant to mush? I’d like to make this tomorrow night!
Denise says
Hi Emily,
If you did it in the Instant Pot I would do the meat separately. You wouldn’t even have to brown it but yes I think the eggplant would turn to mush. So I would do the meat on manual with broth for about 15 minutes. Then quick release, add the rest and cook for about 10 minutes? I’m guessing on the time but I think that would work. Just the eggplant on how you want it to work but I’ve done the meat in 15 minutes on manual and it comes out good. Hope that helps!
Carlee says
This looks delicious and how sweet that your mom would make it even though eggplant didn’t agree with her. Now you have my interest with holey rice and I have to check that out too!
Denise says
Ha ha ha! The holey rice is not a big thing but a family thing we do. My husband just like to be goofy. And yes my mom was a really sweetheart.
Jennifer says
This looks like a hearty and delicious meal…one I think most men would love!
Denise says
Thanks Jennifer!
Caroline says
This sounds like a delicious combination of flavors – so colorful too!
Denise says
It’s simple but yummy. Thanks for stopping by Caroline.