Aubergine in Dal

Aubergine in Dal

Regular readers of my blog may remember that I had bought a couple of ayurvedic cook books. Oh, don’t worry that does not mean I will use ingredients you have not heard of or cannot find in regular shops. I was looking for everyday recipes which have the ingredients combined based on ayurvedic guidelines. One of the books I bought certainly lives upto that requirement. I was flipping through its pages after a long time and came across this aubergine in dal recipe. I am not a fan of regular dal simply because it is too simple and can be plain, especially when made for my husband as he does not like hot food. However, this dal recipe sounded interesting because it also had aubergine, a good veggie included thereby boosting our vegetable intake and the fact that we char it and use it imparts so much flavour to the dish. Although i have not used any chilly powder but just had lot more red chillies than suggested in the recipe, the flavours came through very well and was actually better than hot food. This certainly is a keeper especially considering I get Spanish aubergines more readily than baby eggplants. I used ginger instead of garlic as some folks at home do not take garlic. Here is the recipe, it will serve 2-3. The book recommends that we cook in ghee, I used a little bit oil along with ghee. The tempering with cumin and red chilly was my addition, you could skip it if you want.

1 large aubergine, charred and skin peeled

1/3 cup moong dal, well cooked

1 onion, finely chopped

1 tomato, chopped

1 ½ teaspoon  coriander powder

1 teaspoon cumin powder

½ teaspoon turmeric powder

3-5 dry red chillies

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon ginger

Handful of coriander leaves, chopped

Ghee/oil

Heat some ghee/oil and add dry red chillies, onion and ginger. Cook until soft

Mix the spice powders in some water and add this to the onion. Add tomatoes and cook until tomatoes are mushy

Add the aubergine. I charred it, peeled and cut it into chunks, little water, salt and cook for couple of minutes

Add cooked mung dal, salt and simmer

Heat little ghee in a small pan and add cumin seeds and dry red chillies and add to this dal mixture. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve