Stuffed Eggplants – Palita
Eggplants palita stuffed with potatoes, cilantro, bunch of spices and shallow fried to make the best and unique plant based baingan dish!
I moved to the States after I got married. Me, my husband, FIL and MIL lived together for years! Me and my MIL bonded the most over cooking in our kitchen. She left us few years ago to rest in peace and left us with all the precious memories. Many of our special moments were built inside our kitchen while we cooked delicious food together! I learned a lot from her and this dish is one of those sweet learnings. Every time I make this dish, I cherish all the sweet memories we built over time! Surely she would be so proud of me for sharing this easy and delicious recipe with you all through this platform!
You usually find stuffed Indian eggplants or spiced up eggplant slices. I have never seen a combination of both which is stuffed eggplant palita before I saw my MIL making them. This dish is so easy to make and comes together with few very basic ingredients. You can eat them with phulka rotis, by itself or even with generous drizzle of tempered yogurt!
I hope you like this gluten free, vegan and plant based dish as much as we do!
Happy and Healthy Eating!
Stuffed Eggplants – Palita
Ingredients
- 3 Medium Sized Eggplant Italian or Graffiti eggplants
- 3 Medium Sized Potatoes Red potatoes preferred
- ¾ cup Chopped Cilantro
- 1 tbsp Minced Garlic
- 1 tsp Grated Ginger
- 1 tsp Chopped Thai Green Chilis
- 1 tsp Red Chili Powder
- 2 tsp Dhanajiru cumin coriander powder
- 1½ tsp Garam Masala
- ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1½ tsp Salt
- ¼ cup Oil
Instructions
- Peel the skin off the potatoes and shred them with big shredder.
- Add all the spices listed above along with 3 tbsp of oil and chopped cilantro to shredded potatoes. Mix well. Do not make this mix ahead of time or mix it too much because it will start getting watery.
- Make 1 inch thick round slices of all eggplants. Now make an incision into each eggplant slice to cut it open. Do not cut it all the way and make two slices out of one. Leave some uncut area on the slice so it looks like partially open bread bun. Look at the picture for an example.
- Stuff each eggplant slice with the potato filling.
- Add 3-4 tbsp of oil to wide shallow pan and place each stuffed eggplant slice in it.
- Cover the pan to cook the eggplant slices on medium heat. Make sure the lid holds the steam in the pan. It should take about 5-7 minutes for each side to cook.
- Flip the slices after 5-7 minutes and cook the other side. Add couple of tbsp oil to pan again around flipped eggplant slices.
- Use toothpick, knife or spoon to check if the eggplant is cooked. It should change color so looks like charred eggplants and should feel soft not mushy.
- Once cooked, take it off the stove, garnish it with more chopped cilantro.
- Serve it with phulka roti or eat them by itself with drizzle of tempered yogurt!
- To make tempered yogurt, heat 1 tsp of oil, pop mustard seeds and ping of asafetida. Drizzle over plain whole milk desi yogurt and mix well.
