Eggplants cooked with tomatoes. Served with yogurt-garlic sauce and topped with lots of dried mint. Traditional Afghan recipe.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: Not specified
  • Cook time: Not specified
  • Total time: Not specified
  • Yield: 2
  • Category: Recipes
  • Cuisine: Afghan

Ingredients

  • 6 small eggplants
  • 2 large garlic cloves (finely chopped)
  • 3 medium tomatoes (chopped)
  • ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
  • ¼ cup water
  • oil (to fry the eggplants)
  • salt (to taste)

Yogurt sauce

  • 1 cup yogurt (greek or plain)
  • 1 teaspoon grated garlic
  • dried mint (to sprinkle)

Method

Yogurt sauce

  1. Take yogurt in a bowl and whisk it. Add grated garlic to it and mix. Keep it in the fridge while you cook the eggplants.

Borani Banjan

  1. Cut the eggplants into thin slices. You can remove the outer covering of the eggplant if you want.
  2. Heat oil in a pan on medium flame. Once hot, add the eggplants slices and fry till they are golden brown in color. Do not over-fry it else the slices will become very soggy, you still want it little firm in the center.
  3. Place the eggplants slices on a kitchen towel to drain excess oil. Set aside.
  4. In another pan, heat 2-3 teaspoon of oil and add chopped garlic to it. Saute till it become light golden brown in color.
  5. In another pan, heat 2-3 teaspoon of oil and add chopped garlic to it. Saute till it become light golden brown in color.
  6. Add the tomatoes, turmeric powder, cayenne pepper, salt and cook till tomatoes become soft and mushy. This will take 6-7 minutes.
  7. Next add the fried eggplants, around 1/4 cup of water and cover and cook at low heat for around 10 minutes.Switch off the flame.
  8. To serve, take a plate and put half of the yogurt sauce. Then place the tomato sauce and eggplants over it and finally pour the remaining yogurt sauce on top of the eggplants and sprinkle lots of dried mint.
  9. Serve with kabuli pulao, pita bread or naan.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.