Brinjal Raita

Couple of years ago when my cousins visited us, their acquaintance  invited us for dinner.    It was a delicious dinner and on the menu was brinjal raita.  It was outrageously delicious!  It was the first time I ever tasted it and was awesome.  Ever since, I wanted to try it and unfortunately I did not have the recipe.

Growing up, I remember my mom making vankaya baaji and vankaya bartha but never raita.  In  telugu, brinjal or eggplant is called vankaya.   Anita’s Kitchen started a new  event,  Vegetable Marathon and this month’s vegetable is Brinjal or Eggplant.  I don’t make brinjal very often at home as U is not very fond of it.  I am not very picky about this vegetable and  wanted to cook something different with the vegetable.   So I tried this raita today.  I followed the spinach raita procedure but with different spices.  It turned out good but not as good as the raita I tasted couple of years ago!

Cooking Time: 7 – 10 minutes
Yields: 2 cups

Printable Recipe

• 3 tsp Oil
• ½ small Onion chopped
• 2 Green Chilies chopped
• 1 tsp crushed Garlic
• pinch of Turmeric
• Salt to taste
• 1 long Brinjal or Eggplant
• 1 – 1 ½ cups Yogurt  (I forgot to measure.  It is an approx. qty. I used homemade yogurt)
• ¼ tsp Cumin Powder
• Cilantro to garnish

• Cut the vegetables. Slice the brinjals or eggplant and add them to salted water. This stops the discoloration of the brinjal.
• Heat oil in  pan, add onion and green chilies and saute for a minutes.  Add garlic, pinch of turmeric and salt and mix well.
• Add brinjal slices and saute until the brinjal is tender and almost mushy.
  

• Remove from heat and let it cool.
• In a separate bowl beat the yogurt and cumin powder.  Add salt if required.  This depends on how much salt was added to brinjal.
• Add this is yogurt and garnish with cilantro and cumin powder.
• Serve it with plain rice or with biryani.