Maghmour is a boldly flavoured Lebanese vegetable stew with plenty of garlic and spice, tender fried eggplant, chickpeas and the deep, musky flavour of dried mint.
2cupscooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed if canned
2cupschopped tomatoes, fresh or canned
1cupwater
Fresh mint or parsley to garnish, roughly chopped
Instructions
Preheat oven to 180C (350F).
Fry sliced eggplant in a generous amount of olive oil until golden on both sides. Set aside on a paper towel to drain excess oil. Repeat in batches until all of the eggplant is cooked.
Add ½ cup olive oil to the pan. Fry onion and garlic until golden, then add sliced capsicum, tomato paste, dried mint, cayenne pepper and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until flavours have combined – about 5 minutes. Add chickpeas, tomatoes and water and simmer for 15 minutes.
In an oven dish, spread half of the chickpea mixture evenly and layer with half of the eggplant slices. Top with the remaining chickpea mixture and arrange the remaining eggplant slices on the surface. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes before serving.
Garnish with fresh herbs and serve with rice or flat bread to mop up the juices.
Notes
Nutrition information is estimate and does not include oil for frying - you decide how much you'd like to use.
This generous recipe will serve 8 easily, but you can halve the quantities for a smaller meal or enjoy leftovers for the next few days – they only improve in flavour.