Grilled Eggplant with Quinoa

I'll tell you a little story about this recipe.

Remember last year when I was totally gaga for eggplant?  Well, it's totally the right season for the vegetable, and I found the Sprouted Kitchen's delicious-sounding recipe for grilled eggplant with herbed quinoa last week.  I bought lots of eggplant, some quinoa, and set out to make the meal.

A few adjustments had to be made: I don't have a grill so just used a cast iron skillet, and used smoked paprika instead of qa'tar (mostly because I've never heard of that spice and, unfortunately, don't have it in my pantry).

I spent an hour and a half prepping the eggplant, making the quinoa, putting everything together, only to find out that...I don't like eggplant anymore.  What happened in one year?  I'm pretty sure I prepared everything properly, and yet I seriously did not want any of it in my mouth.
The quinoa, however, is delicious.  I highly, highly recommend it.

Eggplant Caponata

 

Remember when I told you how much I love eggplant?  I could have sworn I did.  In case you don't share my love for this meat substitute, you must make this dish.  It will show you how easy it is to prepare eggplant, how versatile the vegetable can be, and would make a great hostess gift.  Just throw some into a cute jar with a ribbon around the top and present with flair!
Eggplant caponata is a great, all-purpose pantry staple.  It's got crunchy pine nuts, sweet raisins, and slightly bitter and salty eggplant.  Because it's a spread, you can smear it on some toasted bread, mix it into pasta, dip tortilla chips into it....the possibilities are, well, not endless, but you catch my drift.  John Paul and I prepared the caponata as a topping for some plain rice.  I got the recipe from Everyday Food, and didn't change a thing in my own preparation.  It was a great comfort food, and doesn't even take long to prepare!