Spicy Peanut And Eggplant Soup

If I'm going to make, and then eat, a soup, please let it be this one! This was probably one of the best soups I've ever made and is now one of my favorite meals.

It was creamy, spicy and sweet with a rich, deep flavor. The eggplant, tomatoes and green beans were oh so tender and the blister peanuts we used on top were the perfect crunchy garnish. Even my eggplant-hating husband didn't mind the eggplant here since it was so tender.

I didn't make any adaptations with the exception of not seeding the chiles and using 3 instead of 1. It takes a lot of heat to impress us.

We served the soup over/with some rice. I dished mine up like a curry over rice while my husband mixed a smaller amount of rice into his soup. I think his way was probably better as you get to focus more on the deliciousness and loveliness of the soup rather than the rice.

This was a fair amount of effort to make with all of the chopping of vegetables, but it only required one stock pot, so cleanup was easy.

One modification I almost forgot to mention: We, especially I, like peanut stews a little sweet, so I added about 4 tablespoons of brown sugar.

The cost was in the $11-12 range. Not cheap, but for us not prohibitively pricey. And who cares about price when it's this good. Did I actually say that?

The recipe is on page 147 of Veganomicon. Make it.

Eggplant-Potato Moussaka With Pine Nut Cream

Although this dish is labeled as a Greek casserole, it could easily pass as Italian, at least in my opinion. But that's irrelevant, as all that really matters was how good it was. And healthy, too.

The biggest challenge of this meal was getting my husband to agree to eat it without appearing to be trying to hold back vomit. Not because of how it looked or ultimately tasted, but because it contained two of his least loved ingredients, eggplant and zucchini. While I'm sure the thought of this meal put a damper on his day (since he lives in the future most of the time) he graciously agreed to eat it and was pleasantly surprised. Not thrilled, not asking me to make it again, but just pleasantly surprised.

I, on the other hand, thought it was very good and I especially loved that pine nut cream. Those gals were right when they said the testers especially loved that part. I can already see using that as a "ricotta" in a lasagna.

The dish was hearty, rich and delicious. My least favorite part was probably the shallots as they seemed a little bit harder than I thought they would be. The zucchini could also have been roasted maybe a bit longer as it was still quite firm while the eggplant and potato were very tender.

Since Bryan didn't want the leftovers (no surprise there) I've been eating them for the last few days. It's just as good as leftovers as it was the first night.

The price wasn't great, but not ridiculous. I'd say it was in the range of $10-11.

This recipe is on page 164 of Veganomicon.