Or dip. Or salad dressing. Chutney, even! Pesto, maybe?
Ingredients:
- Eggplant – 1 large
- Fresh mint leaves – 1 cup loosely packed
- Roasted peanuts – 2 tbsp
- Cumin seeds – 2/3 tsp
- Ajwain (carom seeds) – 1/2 tsp
- Kashmiri red chilli powder – 1/4 tsp, or more to taste (You can use another moderate red chilli powder.)
- Dry mango powder – 1 tsp, scant (If you don’t have this, replace with 1 to 2 tsp lemon juice.)
- Jaggery powder – 1 tsp
- Rock salt – 1/4 tsp (I used pink.)
- Salt – to taste
Roast the eggplant – I always do this over a direct flame, but I think you could do it in an oven too. If you do it over a flame, be sure to keep turning the eggplant every few minutes. Let cool, and peel off the charred skin.
In a hot pan, dry roast the cumin seeds and and ajwain until slightly darker and aromatic. Let cool.
Blend eggplant pulp and all other ingredients together. You can make it very smooth or leave it slightly coarse, like I did.
Quirky Eats 