I recently had a wonderful soup at Long’s Provencal Restaurant in downtown Seattle. It was so good, I knew I had to try to replicate it at home. I tried doing a search for it online, but no luck…so, I came up with my own recipe and it tastes pretty darn close to the one at the restaurant!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. pork belly, sliced thin
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 chili pepper, minced
• 6 small eggplant (Asian variety), unpeeled & cut into 1″ chunks
• 5-6 Campari tomatoes, diced
• 4-5 cups vegetable stock
• 3 tbsp. fish sauce
• 1 tbsp. wheat-free tamari
• 1/2 cup mint, diced

Directions:

Marinate pork belly in 1 tbsp. of the fish sauce, salt and pepper for at least an hour. In a Dutch oven or large pot, brown the pork belly in batches. The thin pieces should be about an inch in size and no thicker than 1/4″.

Remove pork belly and set aside. In pork belly fat, saute onions until just starting to brown; remove and set aside.

Add eggplant and brown, stirring occasionally to get all pieces/sides (add some olive oil if pan is too dry).  Add diced tomatoes, chili pepper, pork belly & onions.

Add vegetable stock, fish sauce, tamari, and mint. Simmer 15-20 minutes, until eggplant is falling apart. Add black pepper to taste and serve.