Baingan Bharta with Bell Pepper

Baingan Bharta is a roasted eggplant dish originated in the villages of Punjab. Baingan Bharta is a healthy dish - eggplant/baingan is the main ingredient here, is low in fat and sodium and high in dietary fiber, vitamins C and B6 magnesium, phosphorus and potassium. Eggplant are roasted on open flame in this recipe to get a smoky flavour. Add to that the tomatoes, green chillies and onion and you've a low calorie mighty nutritional punch in one single dish. For this recipe, large eggplants are prefereable, as it has less seeds and easy to roast.
To make a little variation from regular bharta, I added Capsicum/ green bell pepper in it and it tasted really great. I love to cook this dish with mustard oil, as it gives a distinct flavour to this recipe. I would like to share with you the recipe today............ Hope you all also like it



Ingredients :
Eggplant/bringal/baingan : 1(large)
Green bell pepper : 1 (medium-cut in cubes)
Onion : 1 (large-chopped)
Ginger : 1"(grated)
Garlic : 4 cloves(grated)
Green chillies : 2 (chopped finely)
Tomato : 1 (large-chopped finely)
Cumin seed : 1 tsp.
Turmeric powder : 2 tsp.
Red chilli powder : 2 tsp.(as per taste)
Coriander powder : 2 tsp.
Cumin seed powder : 1 tsp.
Salt to taste
Mustard oil : 2 tblsp.
Fresh coriander leaves for garnishing

Method :

• Slit from the middle upto the stem, keep the stem intact. To roast the eggplant, brush mustard oil all over the eggplant and sprinkle little salt over it and stand it on a burner of a gas stove over a medium flame. After one side is charred(turns black), turn to the other side holding the stem. Do the same thing until all sides upto the bottom of the eggplant is throughly charred and the flesh is cooked. ( It can also be done on a baking sheet in a preheated oven at 500F for 0 minutes, but it won't develop quite the right smoky flavour)
• Just after the whole bringal is charred, drop into a bowl of cold water, it helps the charred skin to come off easily. After 5 minutes, take out the skin. Cut the stem out and mash the flesh or pulp thoroughly, (there shouldn't be any lump left) and keep it aside.
• Heal oil in a pan, temper with Cumin seed. When they crackle, add onions. Saute for a minute, then add capsicum and saute with the onions. Theh add grated ginger-garlic, green chillies. Saute again for 1-2 minutes.
  
• Then add tomatoes and saute until tomatoes get pulpy, then add all the powdered spices. Cook until oil seperates from the spices. Add the mashed eggplant and mix well with the spice paste. Season with salt and saute for few more minutes.
• Garnish with fresh corinader leaves.
  

Serve with any Indian bread or rice and as a side dish in combination with Garlic-flavoured masoor dal/Chana dal with eggplant.
Sending this delicious side dish to
Priya @ Priya's Easy & tasty recipes
who is hosting AFAM : Bell peppers this month,
event started by Maheswari of Beyond The Usual.