Baigan Bharta

About this Recipe...

Baigan Bharta or smashed eggplant curry is a popular eggplant dish where eggplant is roasted, mashed and cooked with onion, tomato and other spices. There are lots of variation to cook this delicacy. Here I have roasted my eggplant in microwave but you can use stove top or oven to roast your eggplant. But believe me this quick version of roasting the eggplant in microwave is also equally tasty and flavorful.

This dish is basically a winter treat in most of the household. In my home, my mother used to made it during winter for dinner. She used to roast the eggplant in stovetop and then cook it. I followed my mother's recipe here and instead of roasting in stovetop I microwaved it. Make it in this way and enjoy it with your whole family, everyone definitely will love this classic recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 Small size eggplant or 1 medium eggplant
• 2 Tbsp Oil
• 1/2 Cup Chopped Onion
• 2-3 cloves of Garlic finely chopped
• 1 Small tomato chopped
• 3 Green chili finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
• 1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp Cumin powder
• 1 tsp Coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp Red chilli powder
• Salt as per taste
• Finely chopped cilantro for garnishing
• 1/2 tsp Garam masala powder

Directions

1. Wash the eggplant and microwave it for 6-7 minutes or until it's done.
   
2. Now let it cool down and then peel off the skins of the eggplants. Now chopped it finely or mashed it and keep it aside.
   
3. Now heat up some oil and add cumin seeds for tempering, when cumin seeds starts spluttering, add chopped onion and turmeric powder and fry it till it gets translucent.
4. Now add the chopped garlic, sauté it for a while. When you will get the nice aroma of garlic then add all the dry spices and mix it well.
   
5. Now add the chopped tomato and green chilies and mix it well with the spices and cook it. When tomato will become soft then add the mashed eggplant and salt and mix it well so everything will nicely incorporated with each other.
   
6. Cook the eggplant nicely, when everything gets cooked then add garam masala powder and cilantro leaves, give it a final stir and your baigan bharta curry is ready to enjoy.
7. Notes:
   Instead of microwaving the eggplant you can roast it in stove top or oven.