Masala Baingan or Eggplant is one of my favorite veggies especially when baked or grilled. This is a family recipe, with a few amendments, as eggplant isn’t traditionally cooked like this in Pakistani cuisine. It’s typically a bit more saucy in a sabzi/curry form or cooked with a lot of tomatoes and onion in Baingan ka Bharta. This is probably my favorite way to eat it, and people who don’t normally like eggplant have changed their minds after having it this way, so do give it a try! The eggplant is sliced, slathered in a spiced tomato paste and baked in the oven till the flesh is soft and spicy and the skin is charred and crispy. It’s so darn good!
I love having this with roti or pitta, with salad and some dairy free yoghurt, raita or tzatziki, which works really well as the eggplant is baked in olive oil, my version is almost a Greek fusion of what my grandma would make!
I hope you enjoy trying this out and feel free to experiment with other herbs and spices. I’ve used the traditional curry spices that I’ve been mentioning in my posts and recipes as well as Amchur powder, which is a dried mango powder.