Balti Dishes– so, you don’t technically need these. However, we love our balti dishes so we wanted to give them a special mention. As featured in our photographs! If you have friends over or you’re just trying to recreate the feeling of being in an Indian restaurant, they make curry night extra special. Thanks so much for the lovely comment. I don't blame you on the shortcut – my dad is also a big fan of using garlic purée...if nothing else it saves you from having garlic-y fingers for the rest of the day! Really glad you and your friend liked this recipe. The next part of the cooking process will be on the stove top. Pop another small splash of oil in a pan and start frying off the onions, then add the garlic. Then add all the spices and the tomato puree.

Once the aubergine is ready, let it cool and then chop it into bite size chunks. You can remove the skin if you like, but we never do. There’s often a lot of nutrients in the skin so keep them intact if you don’t mind them! Our brinjal bhaji is a much healthier dish anyway. More comparable to an aubergine curry, it involves twice cooked aubergines – first roasted, then sautéed with spices and tomatoes. Is aubergine bhaji good for you? Both employees and self-employed workers will pay less in National Insurance from next year, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced in today's Autumn Statement.

More Vegan Indian Recipes

Autumn Statement: State pension confirmed to rise by 8.5% from April 2024 – while some benefits will go up by 6.7% Brush the skin with a little bit of oil, but there’s no need for a lot of oil. Aubergines act like sponges when it comes to oil, so less is more in this case. The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has today (Wednesday 22 November) announced a range of tax, benefits and savings measures. We round up the key announcements and what they mean for you. Large Pan with a Lid– you’ll need a large pan with a lid. This Scoville 3 Piece Saucepan Set is excellent value for money. It includes a 16cm, 18cm and 20cm saucepan, all with lids. The bhaji is cooked with the lid on so that the little bit of water that’s added doesn’t completely evaporate. The reason for this is that it is a dry-ish dish, but it shouldn’t be bone-dry. That wouldn’t be enjoyable to eat! I love that so many people share a similar story on having their eyes opened to the wonders of food after cutting out meat or dairy. I think it sparks a bit of creativity in a lot of people during that beginning phase where they maybe think they're missing out on something, but then realise that they'd probably been missing out up until this point!

Pro tip: a lot of people will be used to salting aubergines before cooking them. This really is not necessary. We have it on good authority from our chef friend (hey Erin!) that salting eggplant before cooking is not needed. So we don’t do it, and we’ve never noticed the difference.

📖 Recipe

The dish is filled with chunks of aubergine that’s been baked with aromatic Indian spices, topped with fresh coriander and chilli.

Uncover when ready to serve, and top with fresh coriander. It’s as easy as that! Difference between brinjal bhaji and onion bhaji Dan - the story of your journey to veganism is rather similar to mine. I became vegetarian as a teenager, in the late 1970s (at the height of punk, I would note). Prior to that, if you had offered me a pill to take that meant I didn't need to ever eat, I would have taken it. Vegetarianism made food interesting and enjoyable to prepare and share. Those were different days and my attempt to become a vegan was an epic fail. Now I am trying again. The antioxidant nasunin is found in aubergine skin too. So, as long as you don’t use too much oil, not only is this brinjal bhaji super tasty, but it’s good for you too! FYI, we're not nutritionists but we do take a keen interest in what's healthy and what isn't. We do like an unhealthy treat now and again though! Equipment needed to make this dish: NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Ulster Bank, which are all part of the NatWest Group, will now shut at least 172 of their bank branches in 2023 and 2024. As per usual, we’ve included the full instructions in the recipe card below, but here’s a brief overview of how to make this aubergine bhaji.Start off by baking the aubergines for 30 minutes on gas mark 6. That might seem like a high temperature but it really does take that long to get them to the right consistency. It means they’ll be nice and soft and creamy on the inside, and the skin will be just a little crisp on the outside (but not too much!). I have tried your brinjal bhaji recipe and it was a stunning success. I admit I did take one short cut - the tomato puree I used had garlic in it, saving me the effort of chopping up those cloves. I cooked it as a side dish along with yellow daal (to a recipe given to me by the ex-landlord of the pub in my street) and aloo channa (my own recipe, but not exactly complicate). My friend, who shared the food with me, was delighted. She had specifically asked for an aubergine dish, and I hadn't cooked an aubergine for decades, having been put off them by not knowing how to cook them. I will definitely be doing this dish again. Maybe it was down to a spelling error, as it certainly seems that bhaji means a dry curry in most instances, and the onion bhaji has a lot more in common with a pakora than a dry curry. Brinjal Bhaji, otherwise known as Aubergine Bhaji, is a staple in Indian restaurants all over the UK. And now this vegan recipe takes any Indian ‘ fakeaway’ to the next level!