"You Choose" Combo - Vegan Eggplant & Millet "Casserole"

Tonight I combined a "You Choose" Summer Challenge ingredient (Eggplant, chosen by Wendy) and a meal idea a friend and fellow Institute for Integrative Nutrition student, Nadia, shared with our Facebook group (millet polenta with garden herbs).  I took the eggplant and added it with other veggies to the millet, along with a few other ingredients, and came up with a veggie/millet casserole.  It was really good!

Scroll down below the pictures to learn more about millet.

I found these awesome locally grown baby eggplants at Wegmans yesterday.  I had no idea what I would do with them but they were so stinkin' cute I just had to get them.  Now let me tell you, the last time I tried cooking with eggplant - last summer - it was disastrous.  I don't even remember what it was I was trying to make, but it was not good.  Therefore, I haven't tried it since.

When Nadia posted the picture of her millet polenta my stomach growled.  It looked fantastic!  I had a package of organic millet in my pantry from a few months ago, and I had never opened it so I thought it might be nice to incorporate the eggplant along with other fresh veggies into the millet to make it more like a veggie/grain casserole and serve that for dinner tonight.  It's always a good feeling to use things out of the pantry while incorporating fresh produce.  Josh likes that too because there's some things that have been in the pantry since we moved here (ick!)

I know, you want the recipe and less yapping.  Forgive me because I did not measure anything except for the millet & water, so please bear with me on this one folks.  All of the measurements are approximate.

~ 1 cup organic millet, prepared according to package
(mine was with 3 cups cold water, bring to boil, reduce heat & simmer 30 minutes, then fluff it like rice)
~ 2 cups chopped eggplant
~ 1.5 cups chopped eggplant

~ 1.5 cups chopped broccoli

~ 1.5 cups chopped onion

~ 1.5 cups chopped mushrooms
~ 1/3 - 1/2 cup Nutritional Yeast
~ dash of sea salt

~ garlic & herb spice blend (Simply Organic brand)
~ 1/2T cumin
~ Earth Balance vegan butter substitute (about 1T) *optional

~ almond oil (about 1T)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees when millet is almost done cooking. Saute the eggplant, mushrooms, onion & broccoli in the almond oil.  At end of saute, sprinkle with sea salt, garlic & herb spice and cumin.  Stir in the Earth Balance.  Add to millet in mixing bowl and stir together to combine all ingredients.  Stir in the nutritional yeast.  Spray or grease 9x13 baking dish (I used a little more Earth Balance to grease the dish) and add the millet/veggie mixture.  Spread evenly with spatula and pop in the oven for about 30 minutes.  All done - enjoy!!

I served mine with sauteed spinach & arugala - and then I had a second helping.  Josh liked it too, but he thought it was better with Tamari added to his.

The baby eggplants - aren't they cute?

chopped onions, broccoli, eggplant & mushrooms

Earth Balance & organic millet

Sauteed veggies

After baking!  (Yes, I really have a Fit & Healthy spoon rest)

Dinner!

More about millet...

Millet is a gluten-free grain (well, actually it's a seed, but it looks and feels like a grain).  It has been used for centuries in ancient diets and because it is hardy, it can survive drought.  It's also extremely versatile - it can be used as a breakfast "porridge", served savory or sweet, made into a flat bread, used as one might use other pastas or grains, and used in soups.  Nursing mothers have relied on millet soups to aid in breast milk production and to recover more quickly after childbirth.  Millet is a good source of protein and also contains B vitamins, especially niacin, B6 & folic acid, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc & potassium.