Eggplant the purple vegetable.

I love eggplant, turns out Bob did not. As with a lot of food preferences, it's all about how it is prepared.
Nowadays at the farmer's market eggplant comes in lots of shapes, sizes and even colors.
I try to eat it every week when it is in full season. It doesn't lend itself to freezing or canning, so I enjoy it while it is around. I am particularly fond of the small long eggplants, they work very well in stir-fries.

Here is a very simple way to make eggplant.

I like to pair the eggplant with bell peppers ( I decided to use just the red one). You can see that I cut the eggplant in half inch slices on the diagonal, the bell pepper in inch chunks. Feel free to a summer squash or onions or green beans or any other vegetable that seems to fit.

Here is my wok, we got it at a yard sale still in its original wooden box. I am not an expert but I enjoy what I make with it.

Start by heating about two tablespoons of olive oil at a medium high temperature. Once the oil is hot dump in your eggplant and pepper. I was lazy this time but usually I also add 3 to 4 cloves of minced garlic.

The trick is to keep tossing the veggies around with the metal wok tool.This is not a meal where you can wok away, tee hee.
Once they have started to cook a bit I add my not so secret ingredients.

I add 1 tablespoon sesame oil, 1-2 tablespoons soy sauce and 1-2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar. Eggplants are like sponges, they tend to soak up any liquid you choose to use.
 Keep tossing the veggies.

Don't be in a hurry, it can take the eggplant some time to soften to that nice chewy texture.
I also added a half a block of firm tofu, chopped into cubes.

In the meantime you will want some thing to put the veggies over. You could go the normal (boring) route of white or brown rice or you could try something different.
We love the combination of millet and quinoa.

The millet is on the left and the quinoa is on the right. You can see that they are both the same size and thus cook at the same rate. I use half millet and half quinoa, rinse them first, then cook them in my rice cooker, 2 cups of water to 1 cup of grains. Don't forget to add a bit of oil so it doesn't stick.

It looks like this when it is done.
Test a piece of eggplant to make sure it is a texture you like, then ladle it over your grains.
Feel free to toss on some more soy sauce or chili sauce.

Now Bob loves eggplant !!!