Vegan roasted eggplant curry · Tuesday February 18, 2025 by colin newell
Sometimes a damp winter night calls for something warming, nutritious, delicious and comforting.
This eggplant dish meets all of those criterium — and it’s vegan too!
Now normally one would bake the eggplant in the oven, but we opted for 12 minute batches (x2)
in a air fryer at 380 degrees F. The air fryer is quicker and way more energy efficient. I could write a veritable treatise on how we use the regular oven less and less and less in favour of the small, quicker, faster, better air fryer appliance.
Ingredients
4 cups cubed eggplant
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp avocado oil
1/2 large onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1-inch cube of ginger, finely chopped
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground coriander
2 tbsp curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 cup crushed tomatoes
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup cooked chickpeas
Rice for serving (optional)
Directions
Cut the eggplant into a dice – salt the eggplant for around 15 minutes (for reduced bitterness) and to dry it.
Toss it into a bowl with a tablespoon of vegetable or avocado oil – mixing thoroughly.
Divide this mix into 2 – and cook in the air fryer as indicated above.
Meanwhile, open your 14 ounce tin of diced tomato, the tin of coconut milk and the tin of chickpeas.
Put some vegetable oil in a pot (heat it on low) - take a 1/2 of a large onion – chopping it up.
Take 3 large garlic cloves and finely mince.
Put the onions on into the oil to soften for 2 minutes – add the garlic – add a tablespoon of prepared mince ginger.
Still for 2 minutes. Combine.
Add the spices: Paprika, coriander, the curry powder, pepper and salt. Stir for a minute.
Add the tin of diced tomatoes and coconut milk – stir and let it come to a boil.
Add chickpeas (don’t forget to rinse) - and add roasted eggplant.
Simmer for 15 minutes. Serve over rice pilaf.
Colin Newell is a Victoria resident, coffee drinker and writer and has been haunting the internet since 1995!
