Eggplant/Baingan Raita

I love Eggplant/brinjals or what we commonly call as baingan. I already have a recipe of baingan ka bharta, baingan Baath/rice and simple baingan stir fry in the blog. You may have a look at those. The skin as well as the flesh of eggplants are equally nutritive. Also, its always healthy to eat coloured

vegetables. Moreover, it helps to lower blood pressure and increases haemoglobin content.

Now coming to this recipe… let me share an interesting incident with you guys. Few days back, I had made some onion paratha for Neha when she was back from school. Since I was in a hurry, I didn’t have enough time to cool the stuffing and hence I couldn’t roll out the parathas neatly. The stuffing started oozing out and I stopped after making 2 small ones. And hence the parathas couldn’t get a place in the blog. The stuffing was similar to this one, only I added some grated cheese instead of paneer. As I was contemplating what kind of dip to make, suddenly an idea cropped in my mind. I took some fresh curd (which I always have in my refrigerator), whisked it well and added the remaining stuffing of the paratha into the curd. Added a dash of salt and voila! an amazing dip was invented. Neha couldn’t make out what the dip/raita was made of and she happily relished the parathas with the dip.

So yesterday when we planned to make pyaaz paratha again, she requested me to make the same dip. But the trier in me wanted to try something new this time. And fortunately, I had almost half of a nice dark purple baingan with me. Then it was just a matter of few minutes and this super delicious and creamy baingan raita was ready 🙂 Please do try it and share your feedback.

Ingredients:

• Eggplant/baingan 150 gm
• Salt to taste
• Thick curd 1 cup
• Refined oil 1 tbsp
• Chopped onion 1 tbsp
• Minced garlic 1/4 tsp
• Cumin seeds 1/4 tsp
• Mustard seeds 1/4 tsp
• Curry leaves 3-4
• Coriander leaves 1 sprig
• Red chilli flakes 1 tsp
• Chopped green chilies 1/2 tsp

Method:

• Chop the brinjal into small cubes and soak it in water to avoid oxidation. You can even soak it in thin buttermilk (matha) to remove the bitterness of eggplants if any.

• Heat some oil in a pan and shallow fry them till they are golden and almost crispy. Sprinkle salt to taste.

• Transfer them in a bowl and allow it to cool.
• Meanwhile take fresh thick curd and whip it till it’s smooth.
• Pour the curd into the prepared eggplant pieces.

• Now heat a small pan or kadhai and add some oil to it. Add mustard and cumin seeds.
• When they splutter add curry leaves, onion, garlic, green chilies and cook for a minute. Add red chili flakes and switch off the flame.

• Add this tadka into the curd and eggplant mixture and mix well.

• Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves and serve chilled.
• Pair it with any parathas or rotis or rice. It’s an awesome and flavourful dip.

Notes:

• You can use any variety of eggplant. I have used the big purple one generally used for baingan ka bharta.
• Another way to get a beautiful smoky flavour is to roast or grill whole eggplant either in an oven or directly over flame and then peel and use the mashed pulp. This will give you a very thick raita. I couldn’t try that because I had only a small piece of eggplant and I didn’t have enough time to bake it in the oven.
• You can even add a piece of ginger in the tadka.