Ahh...the joy of enjoying the bounty of summer veggies - it brings out a zestful mood in me to start cooking more recipes that have veggies in them! LOL :-)
I was recently craving Thai food when a distant memory caught me in an eggplant mood - memories of sitting in my favorite Thai restaurant in the San Francisco/Bay Area with my friends and eating this wonderful, savory chicken and eggplant dish - I recall trying multiple times to replicate this dish in the past and couldn't get the flavor just right.
However, I believe this time I succeeded (thanks to Google) - I was able to find a recipe from Vegetarian Times that I believe to have the closest flavor profile to the dish I remembered so long ago. Adjusting the ingredients and adding chicken to the mix (to increase the protein), I was able to almost replicate and recreate my favorite Thai Spicy Chicken & Eggplant dish in 40/30/30 macros!
Surprisingly, this HUGE portion is only 466 calories! However, if you struggle to eat this huge of a portion, you can always cut this meal in half (to 233 calories) and increase the meal size from 4 to 8 servings for meal prepping.
Enjoy!
(makes 4-8 servings)
1 cup uncooked brown rice
2 cups water
1 pound eggplant
1 whole green bell pepper (7 oz.)
1 medium white onion
1 large carrot (3 oz.)
3 1/2 tsp. canola or grape seed oil
1 tsp. crushed garlic
1 tbsp. fish sauce
1 tbsp. Bragg's Liquid Aminos
1/4 - 1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. rice vinegar
1 packet stevia
1 pound (16 oz) boneless and skinless chicken breast
2 cups fresh basil, chopped
1. Cook brown rice & water as directed on the package. Set aside.
2. Chop vegetables - eggplant to 1-inch cubes, bell pepper and onion to 1-inch match sticks, and carrots cut TO a diagonal in 1/8-inch disks. Set aside.
3. Roughly cut chicken breast into thin 2-inch slices. Set aside.
4. In a skillet under medium high heat, pour 2 tbsp. oil and saute garlic for 30 seconds, or until garlic becomes fragrant. Then add fish sauce, liquid aminos, cayenne pepper, rice vinegar and stevia and stir until mixture has dissolved.
5. Add chicken and saute in the sauce until meat is thoroughly cooked without drying out the sauce (about 5-8 minutes). Pour chicken and sauce in a separate container and set aside.
6. In the same skillet, add remaining oil and add all the vegetables and saute for 10 minutes until vegetables are cooked thoroughly.
7. Pour chicken and sauce in the skillet with the vegetables and toss for a few minutes until well-combined.
8. Add chopped basil and toss before serving. Serve with brown rice.
Labels: basil, bell pepper, bragg's liquid aminos, canola oil, carrot, cayenne, chicken, eggplant, fish sauce, garlic, onion, recipe, stevia, thai, vinegar
