A side dish from South India, this Brinjal Fry (eggplant stir fry) is delicious, flavorful, and can be made in less than 20 minutes.
Roasted chana dal, urad dal, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, and red dried chilies are ground, then sprinkled on the stir-fried brinjals. The roasted spices lend unique flavors and tastes to the eggplant.
This dry Brinjal recipe is a perfect vegan accompaniment for rice or roti and salad like this Kanda Keri Nu Kachumber!
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I love Eggplant, also known as Ringan in Gujarati. They are also called Brinjal or aubergine in many parts of the world.
They are rich in iron, fiber, and vitamins and are one of the low-calorie vegetables.
This is my second year with a vegetable garden here in Arizona, and I’m a little surprised by how good eggplants are growing.
If you are following me on Instagram or Facebook, I have shared posts and stories about my eggplant harvest. Every other day we are harvesting 2kgs of eggplants.
It seems like they really like the hot Arizona summer weather.
We love eggplants and include them 2 to 3 times a week in our meals during the season.
Eggplant is really a versatile vegetable. Fried, baked, stuffed, roasted, and grilled are all the wonderful ways you can use eggplants!
We make Stuffed eggplant curry, Baingan Ka Salan, Baingan bharta, Baba ganoush, Baingan fry, etc.
Today I am sharing the Brinjal fry recipe with you.
Flavorful, spicy, delectable, and easy, this Chettinad Vankaya fry tick all my boxes! These are a super simple side dish, perfect with anything, and would certainly enhance any ordinary meal for lunch and dinner!
This Chettinad-style recipe is cooked in a different and flavorful way. It is not the same as regular Brinjal fry. Plus this recipe is not deep fried and it is made in very less oil.
I love that this dish is fairly simple and delicious, but nice enough for gatherings, holiday parties, or potlucks.
This recipe can easily be packed in your kid’s lunch boxes as well.
The hero of this dish is freshly grounded masala, also known as Chettinad masala.
The Chettinad masala is a dry spice blend made of cumin seeds, coriander seeds, Red dried chilies, black peppercorn, urad dal, and chana dal.
These spices are dry roasted on a low flame and let to cool in a pan. Once cooled they are ground to a fine powder and added to the dish later on.
I often make this spice blend in large quantities and store it in a refrigerator. It comes in handy when I want to make a quick recipe.
This spice powder can be used with any vegetables like mushroom, cauliflower, bell peppers, carrots, bhindi(okra), and potato.
We make this curry on the stove-top, but I will share the air fryer version also in the recipe card.
Ingredients required
- Eggplant – Use small eggplants or brinjal. These are perfect and get cooked easily.
- Onions – One of the main ingredients for the stuffing. Use roasted peanuts. Or you may start by roasting the peanuts.
- Dry spices – You will need whole spices like coriander seeds, cumin seeds, black peppercorn, and red Dried chilies. Use Kashmiri red dried chili.
- Lentils – Urad dal and chana dal are required to make the special spice blend. They give a nice texture and aroma.
- Curry leaves – Gives a nice aroma.
- Other spices – You will need mustard seeds, salt, and turmeric powder.
- Oil – Any oil will work in this recipe.
- Cilantro for garnishing.
Step by step process
For Chettinad Masala
- Dry roast all the Masala Ingredients for 5 minutes on a medium to low flame. Let it cool down. Grind it to a coarse powder. You can make this masala in bulk too. Place this masala in an airtight container and store it in the refrigerator. It stays fresh for up to 3 months or even more than that.
For brinjal fry
- Remove the brinjal stems and chop them lengthwise and wash them. Pat them dry.
- Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds, and let them splutter.
- Now add curry leaves, hing, and onion. Saute until onions for 1 minute.
- Once onions get cooked, add brinjal/eggplant, salt, and turmeric powder. Stir gently and cover the pan.
- Let it cook for about 6 to 8 minutes or until tender on medium flame, gently stirring in between.
- Once eggplants are cooked, sprinkle the prepared Chettinad masala. Stir everything very gently and cook for a minute.
- Switch off the flame, and add cilantro. You can also add lemon juice for extra freshness.
- Brinjal Fry is ready. Serve hot with Roti or dal-rice. Enjoy!
Notes, pro-tips, and Quick FAQs
- Dry roasting brings out the essential oils in the spices. Don’t skip this step.
- Don’t skip any whole spice; all the whole spices are essential for this dish.
- You can add dry coconut powder to the masala.
- Traditionally, for Chettinad recipes, gundu chilies are used. But I have used the Kashmiri red chilies. It gives nice deep color to the dish.
- After roasting the spices for Chettinad Masala, allow it to cool for a while, and then blend it to a fine powder.
- Select tender Brinjals. They cook faster so it’s more preferred than ripe ones.
- Always cut equal-sized brinjal. This helps in cooking them uniformly.
- Saute the brinjals gently without breaking them and cook.
- We can also make the Chettinad masala well in advance and use them.
- Mix the leftover Chettinad masala with rice and ghee. It makes a yummy variety of rice.
- As always, adjust the spices and salt to taste.
Serve the Baingan fry with plain rice or roti.
The ground masala can be made once and stored in an air-tight container in larger quantities and can be used whenever we make this curry to save time.
And you can store curry in the fridge for up to 5 days.
More Dry curry recipe
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Brinjal Fry
Ingredients
For Chettinad Masala
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
- ½ tablespoon Coriander seeds
- 3 Kashmiri Red dried chilies
- ½ teaspoon Black pepper corn
- ½ tablespoon Urad dal
- ½ tablespoon Chana dal
Other ingredients
- 400 grams – Eggplant
- 1 cup – onion sliced
- 1 teaspoon – Mustard seeds
- 8 curry leaves
- 2 tablespoon – oil
- 1 teaspoon – salt or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon – turmeric powder
- Cilantro for garnishing
Instructions
For Chettinad Masala
- Dry roast all the Masala Ingredients for 5 minutes on a medium to low flame. Let it cool down. Grind it to a coarse powder. You can make this masala in bulk too. Place this masala in an airtight container and store it in the refrigerator. It stays fresh for up to 3 months or even more than that.
For brinjal fry
- Remove the brinjal stems and chop them lengthwise and wash them. Pat them dry.
- Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds, and let them splutter.
- Now add curry leaves, hing, and onion. Saute until onions for 1 minute.
- Once onions get cooked, add brinjal/eggplant, salt, and turmeric powder. Stir gently and cover the pan.
- Let it cook for about 6 to 8 minutes or until tender on medium flame, gently stirring in between.
- Once eggplants are cooked, sprinkle the prepared Chettinad masala. Stir everything very gently and cook for a minute.
- Switch off the flame, and add cilantro. You can also add lemon juice for extra freshness.
- Brinjal Fry is ready. Serve hot with Roti or dal-rice. Enjoy!
Air-fryer method
- Preheat the air fryer if required as per the manual instructions.
- Add the oil, Chettinad masala powder, turmeric powder, curry leaves, onions, and salt to the chopped and dry brinjals.
- Mix them well and ensure you have coated the spices evenly.
- Add the brinjal into the air fryer basket and air fry at 370 degrees F for 15 minutes, Shake them once in the middle.
- By now, the brinjals will be well cooked. If you want crispier eggplant, air fry for 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer it to a bowl and garnish it with cilantro.
Video
Notes
- Dry roasting brings out the essential oils in the spices. Don’t skip this step.
- Don’t skip any whole spice; all the whole spices are essential for this dish.
- You can add dry coconut powder to the masala.
- Traditionally, for Chettinad recipes, gundu chilies are used. But I have used the Kashmiri red chilies. It gives nice deep color to the dish.
- After roasting the spices for Chettinad Masala, allow it to cool for a while, and then blend it to a fine powder.
- Select tender Brinjals. They cook faster so it’s more preferred than ripe ones.
- Always cut equal-sized brinjal. This helps in cooking them uniformly.
- Saute the brinjals gently without breaking them and cook.
- We can also make the Chettinad masala well in advance and use them.
- Mix the leftover Chettinad masala with rice and ghee. It makes a yummy variety of rice.
- As always, adjust the spices and salt to taste.
Nutrition
Warm regards,
Dhwani.
Hi Dhwani,
Thanks for the recipe. I tried this today and it came out very well.
Glad to know. Thanks for the feedback 🙂