Going Vegan: Spicy Indian Eggplant Curry

If you're a vegan (or a vegetarian) ethnic food will quickly become your best friend.

Asian, South American, Indian and African cuisines all offer a wide range of vegetable-based dishes that, in many cases, aren't too hard to make in your own kitchen. And many of them are vegan, or can be modified that way.

 American and some European cuisines rely on animal products, like cream, stock, cheese or butter, to create the base of their dishes. But these cuisines naturally defer to plant-based products like roots, leaves and spices; coconut, almond or soy milk; and vegetable-based broths, which are all vegan-friendly.

With this in mind, I ventured into the world of Indian cuisine to try my hand at Baingan Bharta, a spicy Indian eggplant curry.

Most of the recipes I found called for yogurt to be stirred in at some point during the cooking process. I panicked, thinking my vegan cooking days were over. But, since I've made other (Thai) curries with coconut and soy milk, I used the same principal for this recipe,  replacing cow milk yogurt with soy yogurt. The yogurt is optional, but it mellows out the spiciness of the dish so you can eat it without crying into your plate. If you don't want to use it at all, go without it.

Spicy Indian Eggplant Curry

Ingredients

• 1 large eggplant
• 1 medium onion, sliced thinly
• 1.5 tomatoes, diced
• 1 to 2 tbsps olive oil
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1/2 cup soy yogurt* optional
• 1 tsp salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. Cut top off of eggplant, and cut in half lengthwise. Spray baking sheet or dish with cooking spray and bake 20 to 30 minutes, until the eggplant is tender, browned and starting to shrivel away from the edges.
3. While eggplant is cooking, thinly slice onion and dice tomatoes.
4. Remove eggplant from oven and cool for five minutes. Slice the eggplant halves where the peel meets the flesh about halfway around. Remove peel with fingers and discard.
5. Chop eggplant into cubes.
6. Heat oil on a skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cumin. Cook for about five minutes, or until the onions become translucent.
7. Mix ginger, curry powder and tomato into the pan. Cook for about one minute.
8. Stir in yogurt.
9. Add eggplant to the pan and cover. Cook on high heat for about 10 minutes.
10. Remove cover, add a dash of salt.
11. Reduce heat and cook for another five minutes.
12. Remove from heat and serve with pita bread, rice, or both.

What's your favorite type of curry?