This delicious experiment began at a friend’s house last weekend.
This Thai Style Eggplant Mushroom Stew w/ Tofu is the best way to feed eggplant to picky eaters! Plus it’s creamy from the coconut milk and has tons of flavor.
Are You an Eggplant Lover or an Eggplant Hater?
I’m picky about eggplant, but I really do enjoy it when it’s cooked properly.
To me undercooked eggplant is the worst! It’s tough, bitter, and just all around unpleasant.
But once it’s cooked through it gets a milder flavor and has an almost creamy texture. In this Eggplant Mushroom Stew w/ Tofu it is cooked down until it is creamy.
How Can I Get My Picky Eater to Eat This?
I didn’t tell Cheryl there was any eggplant at all in this. The first time she saw us add the eggplant but she didn’t think there was any in this.
She ate seconds so I feel pretty good about saying your picky eater will eat it too.
Why Is This Thai-Style?
When I was making this I didn’t have access to really any of the traditional seasonings.
We had eggplant, mushrooms, coconut milk and fresh ginger. I thought that was a good start. There was no cilantro but my friend has a garden and we tried something she called Mexican cilantro. It was a little spicy and worked ok, but real cilantro fit much better.
In the first version I used some lemon zest to mimic lemongrass. It was good but once I had real cilantro I felt like I didn’t need that anymore.
So this is creamy and delicious like a Thai curry, but is missing some of the traditional ingredients.
What Did You Serve This On?
It’s red rice which is a whole grain rice just like brown rice. Check out my recipe for Instant Pot Red Rice to get all the details.
This would be delicious over rice noodles as well.
Thai Eggplant Mushroom Stew with Tofu
Ingredients
Saute Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 1/2 cups chopped onions
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 2 cups chopped mushrooms
Sauce Ingredients:
- 14 ounce full fat coconut milk
- 1/3 cup fresh cilantro
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger
- 2 teaspoons chopped jalapeno more to make hotter or leave out to make mild
- 1/2 teaspoon salt or salt substitute
- 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/8 teaspoons black pepper
Instant Pot Ingredients:
- 2 cups chopped eggplant
- 3 cups chopped mushrooms
- 16 ounce block extra firm tofu cubed
For Serving
- 4 cups cooked red rice or brown rice
Instructions
- Add the water and onion to your Instant Pot and use the saute function. Cook until the onions are translucent. Then add the garlic and mushrooms.
Cook until the mushrooms have released all their liquid. Turn off the heat.
Add all the sauce ingredients to your blender and blend until smooth. Taste and add more cumin, or coriander if needed or jalapeno if you want to add some more heat.
Add the sauce, eggplant, mushrooms, and tofu to the onion-mushroom mixture. Cover and cook on high pressure for 15 minutes.
Manually release the pressure, taste and add more salt if needed. Serve over a bed of steamed rice.
janet says
Is there a no-fat substitute for the coconut milk. I’m a no-fat person except for flaxseed daily and, seeds and nuts once a week, a occasional avocado. The coconut fat is just not possible for me. 🙁
Kathy Hester says
You can use low fat coconut milk or just use an unsweetened unflavored nondairy milk in its place.
Marge201 says
This looks amazing!!!! Will make this and report back!
Marge Teilhaber says
So it’s a total of 5C mushrooms: 2C for the sauce when they’re pureed and 3C for the stew, right?
Denise says
Do you peel the eggplant? You don’t have to brown the tofu?
Kathy Hester says
I did not, but you can if you prefer.
Elaine says
Genius idea to substitute coconut milk with unsweetened plant milk and coconut extract. You just opened a world of recipes I was avoiding due to all the coconut milk fat. Thank you!! Suggestions for a tofu substitute?