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This Hearty Eggplant Stew is packed with fresh summer vegetables and simple pantry staples to make a delicious dish you’ll crave every year at the end of summer. Vegan, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free.
Hearty Eggplant Stew is made with sautéed eggplant, tender squash, juicy tomatoes, and protein-rich chickpeas all simmered in a flavorful broth until melded together into a flavorful summer staple. Serve with crusty bread to soak up the goodness any night of the week!
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A Wholesome Stew Featuring Summer Produce
If you’ve ever experienced the bliss of a warm, French Ratatouille, you’re going to LOVE this eggplant stew. It features in-season produce for a veggie-packed, comforting & wholesome meal that will transition you from late summer right into the cooler months of fall.
Think all the warm flavors and tender perfection of ratatouille, but transformed into a big hearty bowl of vegan stew with an Italian twist. It’s a delicious addition to your weekly menu and requires just a handful of ingredients, plus an abundance of fresh veggies. Keep reading for everything you need to know about this end of summer family favorite.
What You Need for this Eggplant Stew
There are 4 components to a flavorful, well-balanced eggplant stew:
- Aromatics: Yellow onion, lots of garlic cloves, Italian seasoning, paprika, and kosher salt are all you need.
- Summer vegetables: I kept with the summer produce theme and used fresh zucchini, yellow squash, cherry tomatoes, and a medium size eggplant. Feel free to use the original recipe measurements as a guide and swap in your favorite veggies or summer produce and make this eggplant stew customized to fit your own taste buds, fridge or garden.
- Protein: Chickpeas are one of my favorite plant-based proteins to add to soups and stews because they’re hearty, creamy, and blend seamlessly into several types of cuisines. If you prefer a vegetable-only stew, omit the chickpeas.
- Broth: Either homemade or store-bought vegetable broth will work well in this eggplant stew. I recommend low-sodium and salting to taste with kosher salt, but if you’re only working with full-sodium, reduce or omit the additional kosher salt as needed.
- Fresh herbs: Technically an optional 5th component, but garnishing your finished soup with plenty of fresh basil for a vibrant boost of both flavor and color.
How to Make Eggplant Stew
- Using a dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot, pan-fry the eggplant cubes until translucent and browned in extra virgin olive oil. Remove the eggplant from the pot and set aside.
- Sauté the diced onion for 1 minute, scraping the bottom of the pot to loosen up any browned bits. Add the chopped tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, and a pinch of salt. Sauté for an additional 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the garlic and seasonings and cook until fragrant.
- Stir in the chickpeas and broth and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the eggplant back to the pot and stir well. Serve topped with torn basil, or as desired. Enjoy!
Caitlin’s Cooking Tips
- Pick the freshest eggplants. When shopping for eggplant in grocery stores, look for eggplants with a glossy, smooth, unblemished skin. The stem of the eggplant should be fresh and green and the eggplant should feel heavy for their size. If they are soft, mushy, or wrinkled, avoid them.
- Don’t rush the sauté cook times. Making soups and stews from scratch is incredibly easy, but sufficiently sautéing the vegetables and aromatics is essential to building a flavorful foundation. Rushing these steps will cause the base of the stew to fall flat in the flavor department. Instead, put on some good tunes or your favorite podcast, and enjoy the process. Your taste buds will thank you.
Serving Suggestions
This stew is best served warm as a main dish or hearty side dish. I personally love it garnished with a generous amount of fresh basil and a side of crusty bread for soaking up the flavorful broth. It would also be delicious paired with a side of Garlic Green Beans or a fresh Tomato Cucumber Basil Salad for the ultimate summer garden meal.
If you’re looking for more soups and stews you can whip up on the stovetop, you’ll also love this Easy Vegan Chili, this Hearty Sweet Potato & Lentil Soup, and this Feel-Good Red Lentil Soup!
How to Store Eggplant Stew
Leftover stew will keep well in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days. I have not tested freezing this stew (it goes fast in our house!), but I imagine it would freeze well for 2-3 months. The only caveat would be that the eggplant and vegetables will continue to soften overtime and if frozen, the texture of the vegetables may not be as desirable as fresh stew.
Reheat any leftovers in a microwave-safe bowl or on the stovetop until warmed through.
Substitutions and Variations
- Chickpea substitute: Replace the chickpeas with white beans like cannellini beans or Great Northern beans for a similar, protein-rich stew.
- Olive oil substitute: Use any neutral cooking oil of choice. Omitting the oil is not recommended. If you are looking for an oil-free soup recipe, you’ll love this Lemon Chickpea Orzo Soup, this Classic Lentil Soup, or this Quick Vegan Minestrone Soup!
- Italian seasoning substitute: No pre-made Italian seasoning? Make your own Homemade Italian seasoning using a simple blend of dried basil, oregano, rosemary, parsley, and thyme.
- Make it spicy: Turn up the heat with a pinch of red pepper flakes to taste.
Recipe FAQs
Soaking eggplant before cooking was a traditional practice to help reduce the bitter compounds in the vegetable. With the pan-frying method, I don’t find this additional step to be necessary. If you’ve cooked with eggplant in the past and found it to be overly bitter, soak the eggplant for 30 minutes in milk (non-dairy works) before beginning the recipe.
If your garden is abundant with tender eggplant, here are a few additional eggplant recipes to try using this versatile ingredient: Vegan Eggplant Reuben Sandwich, Vegan Eggplant Lasagna, or switch out the sweet potatoes in my Sheet Pan Za’atar Chickpeas with a few smaller eggplants.
The key to preventing your eggplant from being soggy is to dice them about 1/2″ wide. If they are cut any bigger, the eggplant is going to be soggy and unpleasantly chewy. Additionally, it is incredibly important to pan-fry the eggplant for a full 5 to 6 minutes to brown it properly and keep it from tasting soggy in the final dish.
Enjoy! If you make this recipe and decide to share it on Facebook or Instagram, don’t forget to tag me @FromMyBowl + #FromMyBowl! I would also love it if you could leave a comment below with a recipe rating! Thank you for the support 😊
Eggplant Stew with Summer Vegetables
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup olive oil divided
- 4 cups eggplant ½” dice (about 1 medium)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt plus more to taste
- 1/2 yellow onion diced
- 1 zucchini diced
- 1 yellow squash diced
- 16 ounces cherry tomatoes cut in half
- 1 15- ounce can garbanzo beans drained and rinsed
- 3-5 cloves garlic minced
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1 1/2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
- 2 tablespoons torn fresh basil for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Pan-Fry the Eggplant: Warm 3 tablespoons of oil in a dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add the eggplant and 1/2 teaspoon salt and stir immediately. Pan-fry for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the eggplant is translucent and browned. Remove the eggplant from the pot and set aside on a plate.
- Veggies: Add the onion to the pot and sauté for 1 minute, scraping the bottom of the pot to remove any browned bits. Add the tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, and an additional generous pinch of salt. Mix well and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Aromatics: Add the garlic, Italian seasoning, and paprika to the pot and stir well. Sauté for 1 to 2 minutes, until the garlic is fragrant.
- Simmer: Add the chickpeas and vegetable broth to the pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the stew gets too thick for your liking you can thin it out with additional vegetable broth or water.
- Serve: Turn the heat to low and add the eggplant, stirring well. Once the eggplant has warmed, divide the stew between serving bowls and top with torn basil. Serve warm; leftovers will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days.
So yummy. Served with some sourdough and avocado and it was bliss ✨
I love ratatouille and this really hit the spot. It was delicious! I appreciate the Italian seasoning substitutions – I couldn’t find it at the store and it helped me figure out which spices would go well with the dish.
Glad you loved it, Sarah!
Second time I am making this everybody loves it we are going to add a small amount of noodles or rice this time and I didn’t have fresh tomatoes didn’t want to go to the store so I drained the juices off of diced tomatoes and added it. Thanks for the great recipe
Glad everyone enjoyed it, Debbie!