The Steaming Pot - Easy vegetarian recipes from India

Onions are indispensable to cooking in many Indian households, so much so that the humble bulb has caused governments to topple. To those for whom curries without onions seem inconceivable, I heartily recommend this recipe for stuffed baby eggplant in peanut sesame sauce. The sauce, with tamarind juice to give it body, is rich, thick, and entirely sans onions. I like to make this gravy when I have guests over, especially my no-onion-no-garlic folks.

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The big purple eggplant is generally used for baingan bharta in my kitchen. Not so tonight. A yummy eggplant-ginger chutney awaits the rice that’s still cooking.

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You get the most novel types of brinjals (eggplant) in Karnataka – today I picked up small bright round green brinjals, with gentle lines of white and purple, and prepared a quick side dish to go with rice and dal. Here’s how you could make crispy green brinjal.

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A common problem with the aubergine / eggplant / brinjal is that it begins to turn brown on slicing.

This is actually a good sign as it signals the presence of powerful antioxidants in the eggplant.

Good signs are all fine, but you don’t want your dish to look a muddy shade, do you?

Here’s a simple tip to prevent cut eggplant from discoloring. This has the added effect of reducing its bitterness.

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When onion prices skyrocket, as they have done in India nowadays, I instinctively switch to dishes that don’t use onions at all. Here is the recipe of aloo baingan bharta (that is, potato and eggplant mash) that I made today, using no onions.

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Before I moved to south India, baingan (eggplant) was strongly linked in my mind with baingani – the color purple. Imagine my surprise when I first discovered that baingan could be green. Since then, my relationship with the green baingan has gone from misgivings to experimentation to understanding. I have discovered that this variety of eggplant takes a slightly shorter time to cook than its purple sibling, and that certain ingredients complement the green eggplant better.

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