Baingan Bharta
This Indian eggplant dish is full of flavour and hard to resist. This is a delicious and absolutely easy dish to make! Even those that aren’t eggplant fans will find this curry hard to resist!
Ingredients:
2 eggplants
5-6 garlic cloves
2 green chili in each
2 tsp vegetable oil to coat eggplant
2-3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp cumin seeds
3 dried red chili, broken in half
2 cloves garlic, minced
1” piece of ginger, grated
2 medium onion diced
1- 1 ½ tsp kashmiri chili
3 tsp coriander powder
½ tsp smoke paprika
3 medium tomatoes, diced
1-1 ½ tsp salt
½ tsp garam masala
¼ -⅓ cup fresh coriander
Instructions:
Heat oven to 425°F.
Cut slits into the eggplants, put 5 garlic cloves and one green chile in the slits. Oil the outside skin of the eggplants. Place on a tray and then into the oven to roast for 40 - 45 minutes.
While the eggplant is roasting, prepare each of the vegetables and place in separate bowls. First, dice the onion into small pieces. Then, mince the garlic, grate the ginger and finally, chop the tomatoes into a small dice.
In a separate pan, heat the vegetable oil and add cumin seeds & dried chili halves. Fry the cumin seeds and dried chilies for 1-2 minutes until the colour has darkened a little bit. Make sure not to burn the cumin seeds.
Add onion and let cook until the onion is slightly browned.. Add the minced garlic and grated ginger and fry for 30 seconds. Add chili powder, coriander powder and smoke paprika and cook for another minute or two.
Next add chopped tomatoes to the onion-spice mix. Cook until the tomatoes are softened and break down. Stir occasionally. Turn heat to low when done to keep warm.
When the eggplants are fully roasted, they will be a bit softened. Take it out of the oven and let it cool for another 5-10 minutes. When it is cooled down a little bit, cut off the tops of the eggplants and peel the skin. Then mash the insides of the eggplants including the chilis and garlic.
Add mashed eggplant to the tomato/onion mix and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook for another 5 minutes to combine all ingredients. Taste and add more salt if necessary.
Before serving add ½ teaspoon garam masala and fresh coriander and it is ready to serve.
Suggestion: An alternative would be to add vegan yogurt to this eggplant dish and then you could serve this dish as a dip with vegan naan or pita bread.
Enjoy!