The Most Scrumptious Dish You'll Ever Make Eggplant Rice Dressing

In our house the most magical dish we make is called Eggplant Rice Dressing.  The flavors that comprise this dish will keep you and your family or guest coming back for more.  Make a lot so folks can take some home.   It's very easy to make and I'll tell you how.

First we want to cut up:

1 large eggplant, pealed and diced into approx. 1" cubes
4-5 Stalks of Celery - chopped very fine
2 Bell Peppers - the color choice is yours. In this dish we used green and red
1 Large Onion - chopped small
1 small Jalapeno - cut the seeds out and remove them from the pepper - then dice fine (optional)
Depending on your taste you can also shred carrots. Raisins are good in it as well as pecans- ground up.

In a large pot combine the above and add approx. 5-7 dashes of soy sauce - good strong dashes
and 3-4 dashes of Worcestershire Sauce - nice strong ones here too
Add a couple shakes of Gumbo File' - it's not just for gumbo.

some salt to taste and pepper to taste.   You're going to let this cook down for a good hour. It will look like the following picture.  Eggplant has a lot of water so as it cooks down the water makes a good juicy base.  This is where most of your flavor will come from.

Cook some sausage (hamburger meat can be used or if you don't eat meat, skip this step all together). We prefer maple sausage - it adds a little extra sweetness. And cook a pot of rice. I make 2 Cups.

Then mix the cooked sausage into the cooked rice.

Now pour your cooked down veggie mixture on top of the rice and meat.

And mix together.  You can add your choice of a turkey or chicken gravy or eat it just like this.  It's a good one dish supper or an excellent side dish.   Storage is super easy with this.  I freeze half of it and we eat the other half through the week.  For the freezer I simply put it in a large baggie. When I'm ready to have it again, I let it thaw and pour it in a bowl, add a little water,cover it and put in the microwave for approx. 3 minutes.  It depends on your voltage of microwave so use your judgement as if you are just reheating rice.

And that's the dirt for the day.  A wonderfully magical food that as I said, will keep them coming back for more.    There's magic everywhere, even in food, if you look for it.