Tease Your Taste Buds: Brinjal Thogayal/Thokku/Chutney (Spiced Eggplant Paste

Thogayal is a South-Indian preparation which is pasty in texture and spiced with fresh home-made powders of dry-roasted lentils. It is usually mixed with white rice and enjoyed with another vegetable dish and some crispy papads! :) South-Indians typically eat curd rice with any kind of thogayal.

Eggplant is my hubby's first love (no kidding) and this thogayal is another of his favorites.

Since I don't use coconut in this recipe, this can be stored for upto 4 days in the fridge.

Brinjal / Eggplant Thogayal /Spiced Paste

What You Need -

Eggplant / Brinjal - 1 long (400 grams)
Onion - 1 big/medium
Garlic - 5 cloves
Ginger - 2 inch piece
Green chillies - 3 or 4

Tamarind - a small lime sized ball (Or Dry Tam powder - 1 tsp)
Cilantro/ Coriander leaves - a little (optional)
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder - 3/4 tsp
Salt - to taste
Oil - 2 tsp

For Fresh Spice Powder (Dry-roast and powder together)

Urad dal - 2 tsp
Channa dal - 2 tsp
Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp
Fenugreek (Vendayam) - 1/2 tsp

Freshly roasted and ground spice powder

How To -

Heat 1 tsp oil in a deep kadai and add finely chopped onion, ginger, garlic and green chillies.

Chop eggplant/brinjal into cubes and microwave for 8-10 minutes.
Add cooked brinjal to kadai once onions get fried well and turn pink.

Add turmeric, red chilli powder and salt.

Mix them well for about 7 minutes. At this stage, you can actually eat this as Brinjal Dry Curry :)
Allow the cooked brinjal to cool for 10 minutes and then blend the whole thing in an electric mixer/blender to a paste. It is here that you add tamarind. I also like to add the stalks of coriander leaves.

Now, take the same kadai (now empty), heat 1 tsp oil and temper with mustard and urad dal.

Add the blended paste and add the freshly roasted spice powder (made from ingredients listed above) to it.

Mix well, check for salt and there you go! Eggplant Thogayal is ready!

Brinjal/ Eggplant Thogayal

It should not be a smooth paste. As you can see, thogayal is supposed to be 80% blended with strands of the vegetables/other ingredients seen so that you can bite into them. Bon Appetit!