This recipe was actually quite excellent when I made it. However I did alter the ingredients slightly omitting the italian seasoning and light cream and substituting fresh basil and oregano and half a cup of sour cream. I also used a strong-flavored mushroom broth in place of the chicken broth.
I have to admit I decided to go for an ethnic twist to this one so I substituted coconut milk for half and half and used cumin curry ginger and garam masala in place of the salt/pepper/seasoning. It was awesome! Very hearty filling and easy to make! Thank You!
My husband loves veggies and I love rich foods this is the best marriage of the two. I double the amount of rice to make it less soupy; and vegetable broth can be easily substituted for chicken broth.
I must say I made some revisions to this recipe. First off the eggplant must be soaked in cold salty water after being cubed for at least fifteen minutes then rinsed before cooking. This alleviates the stringy bitter toughness you often get with eggplant. I doubled the amount of mushrooms in this dish. I sauteed the onions and garlic together until translucent then added the mushrooms and eggplant together instead of cooking separately. I also splashed some white wine on them while they cooked. I'm pescetarian so I subbed vegetable stock for the chicken and cut the amount in half. The liquid cookoff from the veggies seemed pretty ample already! I added a cup of cooked brown rice in addition to the wild rice and it still seemed like there was more than enough liquid so I used only 1/4 cup of evaporated milk to replace the cream whisked it with the cream of mushroom (I used a lowfat version) and added that for the simmer. I also subbed 2 tsp. Greek seasoning for the Italian seasoning. I was going to top it with some crumbled feta but I was out so I garnished with a dollop of Greek yogurt and it was fantastic! Mine came out great and I give it a 4. Since I didn't follow the instructions exactly it is hard to rate this recipe but it seems as though it would have turned out overly liquidy with all that cream and stock considering I doubled the rice and the mushrooms and had to cut back on liquid.
this is a great eggplant recipe! i made necessary changes (i excluded cream and cream of mushroom soup) due to current dairy restrictions) and it still turned out excellent. i added 1 1/2 c extra chx broth and 1 c uncooked basmati race and cooked it all together. it was wonderfully savory. my hubby (who is not much of a rice fan) even commented on how good it was. thank you so much for this recipe!!!
Sooo good. Works as a main dish as well as a side dish. I actually followed Alysta's variation on this recipie and added cashews as well. It was a hit! Thank you both for saving Christmas Eve dinner!
I thought this recipe was really good. I added chicken as another user suggested and I also added a can of diced tomatoes. I must say that it did look absolutely awful but the taste was great. Please remember for those of you that didn't like the recipe maybe it's just that you don't like eggplant! It's no for everyone...
what an awesome dish to use up my extra eggplant! extremely rich so went perfect with a loaf of brown bread. i can't wait to make this for my vegetarian sister. and btw: i used cottage cheese instead of cream (because that's what i had) and 2 cups chicken-flavored wild rice-a-roni instead of regular rice (because that's what i had).
Great recipe! I did think it needed a little more salt and garlic. I also soaked the eggplant in salt and water (in the frig) for about 45 minutes as suggested. It worked great! The eggplant did not fall apart.
Hmm. Well there are good and bad things here. Mushrooms and wild rice were made for each other. I kept to the recipe other than doubling the rice. It was a nice creamy sauce I liked that texture after I doubled the amount of wild rice. The seasoning was great. On the other hand the canned soup flavor/stickiness didn't work that well here. I think a homemade bechamel would be a better flavor/texture balance if we are looking for creaminess. The eggplant was completely lost. If I didn't cook it myself I would never know eggplant was even in there. To recreate this better for me I would leave out the soup and make my own thinner lighter cream sauce. I loved the idea of eggplant with these ingredients so I plan to revisit this with the tweaks I mentioned.
