An Eggplant Passover: Vegan Eggplants and Kabocha Squash in Coconut Chipotle Sauce

This year I hosted a Passover Seder for the second time. For those who don't know a bagel from a blintz: Seder means "order," so this is a ritual dinner where you follow a series of blessings in a precise order and tell the Exodus story through symbolic foods. It's also an event that will use EVERY DISH YOU OWN so I have decided not to host one again until I live in a place with a dishwasher.

Every single dish.

Passover is notorious for its strict food rules—no breads, grains of any kind (except quinoa for some painfully arbitrary reason), corn, beans, lentils, rice, etc. It's also a terrible holiday for vegans and vegetarians, because once you take away all those foods, you're left with nothing but vegetables and matzah-cream-cheese sandwiches.

That's why I served this comfort-foody vegan dish at my Seder. I think it even counts as paleo, if you're into that sort of thing.

Eggplant and Kabocha Squash in Coconut Chipotle Sauce

Ingredients:
3-4 Japanese eggplants or 1 large Italian eggplant
1 kabocha squash
2 cans coconut milk
chipotles in adobo sauce (to taste, depending upon preferred spice level)
salt to taste
2 kaffir lime leaves, slivered finely
lime zest
lime juice (to squeeze in at the end)
cilantro, scallions

This recipe tastes even better with homemade chipotles in adobo sauce, which is easy to whip up, especially using an instant pot. Combine dried chipotles with tomato puree, sliced onions, garlic, water, sugar, vinegar, and salt; cook for a long time on low heat OR pressure cook for 25 minutes. I usually make mine with tons of sauce, so I can get that chipotle flavor without building too much heat.

Method:
Scoop out kabocha insides and cut off rough spots from the skin. (Note that you can eat the skin.) Slice kabocha and eggplants and layer in a pan however you'd like.

I tried to get all fancy with it and then realized it would just become a chaos once everything got dumped in there. So much for aesthetics.

Prepare the sauce: combine coconut milk, chipotle chopped fine, salt, lime zest, and lime leaves. Adjust spice and salt level to taste. Note that the fat in the coconut milk absorbs a lot of the capsaicin, so you can add more chipotle than you might think.

Easy as pie.

Pour sauce over the vegetables and make sure it coats everything.

Cover with tin foil and bake in a 350° oven for about 1 hour, or until sauce reduces and vegetables look soft. For the final 10 minutes, remove the foil and let the vegetables brown on top.

Squeeze lime juice over the top and sprinkle with cilantro and chopped scallions.

This is way more delicious than you are even imagining.

Chag sameach! Happy Passover! Or just make this any ol' time.

Note: I think this would make a good co-op slop. Just FYI.