Eggplant Ziti Stir Fry

I’m fully aware that this photo and dish looks like it jumped straight out of the 1970’s. I think it’s the bowl. It’s a Fire King Anchor ‘Meadow Green’ Pattern Dish from my grandmother’s collection but I’m in love with it and totally wanted to use it!

I have two issues with the new apartment right now. All of my “cool prop” dishes are still packed up and I’m still learning my way around the apartment as far as where the best light is for photos are such. This is only the second recipe I’ve worked on and photographed in the new apartment.

This recipe and post is 100% inspired by my little trip to the farmers market this past Saturday. Y’all, I literally live right across the street from the farmers market now.

The Farmers Market season is coming to a close around here and I think we only have a couple of more Saturdays before everything is boarded up for the year.

I was mentally prepared that there may not be a lot of vegetables and such over at the farmers market and of course I was right. There were a few tables with the last of this years fresh tomatoes, squash and cabbage but that’s about it.

I managed to grab a few red and green tomatoes and I was able to scoot past the guy trying to sell ‘fresh blackberries”.

The vegetables may not have been plentiful but I did hang around the bread and baked good tables a bit longer than normal and grabbed a few loaves of fresh sour dough bread for Thomas and a Butter Pecan Pound Cake loaf that I am determined to re-make for the blog.

One of the vegetables that I did grab was eggplant.. Now I don’t normally cook with eggplant but for some reason when I saw them sitting on the edge of the last table I just had to buy them. I immediately thought of Eggplant Parmesan and that was all I could think about while I was at the Market….well that and the tomato and mayo sandwich that I was going to have as soon as I got home. haha.

I made it back to the apartment with all intentions to turn the beautiful, deep purple eggplants into Eggplant Parmesan but it didn’t happen.

My god-daughters Alyssa and Kendra were at the apartment today while their mother worked and Alyssa decided to help me brainstorm a bit. We googled a bit, we read over The Flavor Bible and thought about what else we could make.

I still had stir-fry on the brain and when I mentioned it to Alyssa she said that was it. We needed to make an Eggplant Stir Fry. So that’s what we did.

I used ramen noodles in the last stir-fry I posted but I decided to go with Ziti for this one.

Why? Because I can. You don’t really need to use Ziti, I mean any pasta would work but we liked the Ziti with this Eggplant Stir Fry.

All of the other Eggplant Zitis that I looked up where loaded with pasta sauce and cheese. Now don’t get me wrong, there isn’t anything wrong with pizza sauce and cheese. I LOVE pizza sauce and cheese but I wanted something a little different, I wanted something that didn’t fall in line with all the other “Eggplant Ziti” recipes out there.

Let me know if you give it a try. Let me know if you liked it!

Eggplant Ziti Stir Fry

By: Angie Barrett – BigBearsWife.com

10/22/15    

Makes 6 servings

                                                                          (Click to Print)

Ingredients 

1 eggplant (about 15-20 oz of eggplant)
3 tablespoons of vegetable oil (or olive oil)
2 tablespoons of granulated garlic (or 1 clove of garlic, minced)
1 tablespoon of onion powder
2 cups sliced mushrooms
2 cups broccoli florets
1 large tomato, diced
2 tablespoons of GREEK seasoning or no salt seasoning salt
16 oz Ziti Pasta
1 tablespoon of Gourmet Garden Parsley Stir-In-Paste*
1 tablespoon of Gourmet Garden Basil Stir-In-Paste*
*I love the Gourmet Garden Stir-In-Paste but if you don’t have it or can’t fine it use fresh herbs instead.

For the sauce:
1 tablespoon of granulated garlic (or 2 cloves of garlic minced)
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Directions 

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add in the Ziti and cook until tender.

Slice the Eggplant into 1/4 inch slices and then dice the slices into 4 pieces or smaller if the eggplant slices are huge.

While the noodles are cooking heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet. Add the eggplant to the skillet and season with the granulated garlic (or 1 clove of garlic, minced)
and onion powder. Toss well and cook for 4-5 minutes.

Add 2 tablespoons of oil to the skillet. Add in the mushroom slices and cook for about 3 minutes. Add in the broccoli and stir. Cook the broccoli until it is bright green.

Stir well and cook until vegetables are tender.

In a medium bowl, combine the ingredients for the sauce (listed above) and whisk together until smooth.

Make a well in the center of the skillet and pour the sauce into the center of the skillet. Cook for 4-5 minutes. Stir everything together in the skillet. Scoop the noodles from the pasta water and mix into the vegetables.

Stir in the Gourmet Garden Parsley Stir-In-Paste* and  Gourmet Garden Basil Stir-In-Paste*
*I love the Gourmet Garden Stir-In-Paste but if you don’t have it or can’t fine it use fresh herbs instead.

Toss everything together and serve.