Grilled Eggplant Rolls : " Rice 'n' Roll in a Bowll "

(vegan, gluten-free, oil-free, sugar-free)

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Today was going to be a mush-meal day. A "mush-meal" is what I call throwing together a bunch of food in the fridge that need to be finished, and cooking it as a thick soupy concoction all at once without any attempts of making it taste good other than the final dollop of sriracha on top. It started off kinda of like that when I started dumping vegetables into the grill. But from that point on, I decided to get a little creative.

Servings: 2

Ingredients:

• grilled vegetables/tofu
• 2 medium eggplants (about 5" long), sliced
• 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
• 1 large onion, sliced in rounds
• firm tofu slab 1/3-1/2" thick (cut it if it's too thick)
• 1 1/2 cups brown rice, cooked
• 2 tbsp pine nuts
• 1/3 jar "Simply Natural" tomato & basil sauce
• 1 tsp cumin
• 2 green chili peppers
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2/3 tsp salt (add more to taste)
• Garnish: cilantro + lemon

Prep:
1. Cook the brown rice according to the time given on packaging.
2. Grill the vegetables and tofu on both sides until golden. On the right is a logo photo of the bad boy I used to grill my ingredients.

Instructions:

1. Heat a small saucepan to medium. When it's hot, dry roast the cumin. Then toss in the garlic and chili peppers. Cook them until brown (not burned). If they start to stick, add a few splashes of cold water. I decided to use pine nuts last minute, but now would be a good time to add them.
2. Add in salt, sauce and brown rice.
Optional: I added about 1/4 cup of water at this point, because I like the sauce to be a little thinner.
3. Leave this mixture on the heat while you assemble the rolls, giving it a quick stir every couple of minutes.
4. Roll a few pieces of mushroom and a slice of tofu into the eggplant strips as shown in the photos.
5. Turn off the heat, and add in the onions.
6. Final Assembly: Split the rice mixture into two bowls. Top the rice layer with the eggplant rolls, and then place your garnish as per your liking. (I just got back a bowl that I painted at crock-a-doodle, and I was really excited to use it for the first time.)