Borani Banjan – Afghan Eggplant With Yogurt Sauce
May 05, 2014, Updated Jan 02, 2018
Eggplants cooked with tomatoes. Served with yogurt-garlic sauce and topped with lots of dried mint. Traditional Afghan recipe.
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Recently I have noticed the similarities between Indian and Afghan food and not only food even the language is so similar. If you go to any Afghan restaurant and look at the menu, you will be surprised to see so many words that we commonly use in India. For example cinnamon is called dalchini, same as in Hindi. Raisins is kishmish, salt is namak. They have vegetable entrees listed as “tarkari”, which means vegetable in states like UP and Bihar in India.
And other than the language the spices used are almost same, there’s turmeric, there’s cumin, there’s cinnamon, red chilli powder, cardamom and so on. No wonder the Afghan dishes always taste like home and thus it is also no wonder that I love Afghan food! : D Since it’s so closely related to Indian food, my taste buds relish it just like my own food.
One of my favorite Afghan recipe is Borani Banjan, which is an eggplant dish with yogurt and lots of garlic & mint. I remember the first time I tasted this wonderful dish at an Afghan restaurant and instantly fell in love with it. I love eggplant and when you make it this delicious the love just doubles. I would like to mention here that my hubby who isn’t a great eggplant fan loves this dish and always orders it whenever we eat at an Afghan restaurant. So you can imagine, it must really be good.
This dish is made using the regular size eggplant and slicing it into pieces. I had few small eggplants in my refrigerator and I really wanted to make borani banjan so went ahead with these. If you have a medium sized eggplant, please use that. For this recipe eggplants are deep fried first and then cooked with a tomato sauce. Finally it’s topped with yogurt-garlic mixture and lots of dried mint. I have made this recipe before and that time around I shallow fried them. The next time I make Borani Banjan I will try and bake the eggplants. But traditionally they have to be deep fried.
It’s tastes best with naan or kabuli pulao. I really wanted to make the kabuli pulao and even soaked rice for it but it just got cancelled out at the last minute (read – I got lazy).
Check out my other favorite Afghan recipe, Dough -the yogurt drink which my hubby is pro at making.
Method
Cut the eggplants into thin slices. You can remove the outer covering of the eggplant if you want (I didn’t). 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. Repeat the process with all the eggplants slices and place them on a kitchen towel to drain excess oil. Set aside.
In another pan, heat 2-3 teaspoon of oil and add chopped garlic to it. Saute till it become light golden brown in color.
Add the tomatoes, turmeric powder, cayenne pepper, salt and cook till tomatoes become soft and mushy. This will take 6-7 minutes. Now add the fried eggplants, around 1/4 cup of water and cover and cook at low heat for around 10 minutes.
Sorry for no recipe step pictures after this : (. I got busy with something and forgot to click the pictures.
So while the eggplant is simmering, take yogurt in a bowl and whisk it. Add grated garlic to it and mix. The yogurt used should be cold, if not you can mix yogurt and garlic beforehand and put it in the fridge to chill.
To assemble this recipe, take a plate and put the yogurt sauce first. Then place the tomato sauce and eggplants over it and finally put some more yogurt sauce on top of the eggplants and sprinkle lots of dried mint. You can also sprinkle some cayenne pepper on top but that’s optional.
Serve with kabuli pulao or pita bread/naan.
* Adjust spice level to taste, you can add more or less of cayenne pepper depending how spicy you want to eggplants to be.
* Don’t forget to use cold yogurt for making the yogurt sauce.
* You can shallow fry the eggplants or even bake them for healthier version.
* Do not over-fry the eggplants, you want them to be little firm in the center.
Borani Banjan - Afghan Eggplant With Yogurt Sauce
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
Instructions
Yogurt sauce
- 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
- Cut the eggplants into thin slices. You can remove the outer covering of the eggplant if you want.
- 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.
- Place the eggplants slices on a kitchen towel to drain excess oil. Set aside.
- In another pan, heat 2-3 teaspoon of oil and add chopped garlic to it. Saute till it become light golden brown in color.
- In another pan, heat 2-3 teaspoon of oil and add chopped garlic to it. Saute till it become light golden brown in color.
- Add the tomatoes, turmeric powder, cayenne pepper, salt and cook till tomatoes become soft and mushy. This will take 6-7 minutes.
- 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.
- 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.
- Serve with kabuli pulao, pita bread or naan.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Borani Banjan – Afghan Eggplant Dish
