Creamy eggplant with assorted veggies

I got the eggplants from the garden and I wanted a dish that was creamy that satisfied the fat craving that one gets from alfredo sauce or some sort of mayonnaise based salad BUT it had to be healthy (the nut spread is key in the creaminess of the dish). Every eggplant dish I know of requires lots of oil to soften it so I came up with this recipe which uses the water that is released from the other veggies to infuse the eggplant with moisture and flavor. In the past week I have made this twice and can't get enough. I made a huge batch yesterday (about 4x the recipe) because of all the eggplants that were ready to use. I couldn't use one of the Ichiban eggplants because it got too big so was seedy. I used young eggplants so the seeds were super tender so the texture of the dish isn't affected by the seeds. The big one in the picture had some seeds so I scraped them out.

Creamy eggplant with assorted veggies
Makes approximately 3 1/4 cups
Note: I like this to be chunky so I chopped all the veggies and minced the garlic

3/4 cup eggplant, peeled and seeds removed
2/3 cup carrots
2/3 cup red onions
1 cup portobello mushrooms
1/2 cup red pepper
1 cup tomatoes
2 cloves minced garlic
2 TB olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 TB balsamic vinegar
1 tsp agave nectar (or other sweetener)
1/3 cup nut spread

Saute first 7 ingredients in olive oil for about 5 minutes. Mix in salt, vinegar, and agave nectar. Cover the pan and cook on low for 30 minutes (or when veggies are tender), stirring often. Remove from heat and mix in the nut spread. Add salt if needed.

In the photo of the completed dish, I blanched napa cabbage leaves for a minute then stuffed it. Other ideas:

- Toss this with your favorite pasta. I use Tinkyada brown rice pasta.
- Eat it as is as the main or side dish.
- Top it on chicken, a baked potato, or a piece of fish.
- Roll it up with some raw veggies and nori.