rants & recipes

Ingredients:

• 2 American eggplants, diced, salted, rinsed, squeezed and rinsed again (whew!)
• 2 onions, sliced
• 3 carrots, diced
• 4+ cloves garlic, minced
• approx. 6 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 cup dry pearled barley
• 2/3 cup dried lentils
• approx. 6 white mushrooms, diced
• 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
• approx. 1 oz dry soy curls, reconstituted, heated with some oil, soy sauce, garlic and onion powder (could use more, this is just the amount I had as left-overs) (optional)

Instructions:

• Soak barely and lentils for a couple of hours to reduce cooking time.
• Rinse and place barley and lentils in stock pot, barely cover with water and cook on medium-high until done (keep a watch on the water level). Turn off heat.
• Strir/steam fry onions, carrots, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes in a generous amount of olive oil (I used a generous amount of oil in this recipe as it was originally going to be a curry - I then realized I didn't have any coconut milk).
• Add mushrooms and continue to cook until veggies are done. Add veggies to stock-pot with lentils and barely.
• Stir-fry eggplant in some olive oil until done. Add to stock pot.
• Add canned tomatoes to stock pot.
• Add warmed soy curls (along with their oil and soy sauce) to stock pot. (if using)
• Turn stock pot back on, to medium-high heat. Add a little water as needed. Allow all the ingredients to cook together for a few minutes (watching that barely - it sticks!!).
  

Notes:

• I cooked all the veggies separately to reduce the amount of water I'd need, if I threw everything into a pot at once.
  
• Serve with pasta.