Badanekayi Shenga Palya | Eggplant Peanut Dry Sabji Recipe

Badanekayi Shenga Palya / Eggplant Peanut Dry Sabji goes very well with ragi rotti or with chapathi, akki rotti, jowar roti. Badanekayi Shenga Palya is dominant with peanuts in taste. Serve badanekayi shenga palya for breakfast or lunch and I’m sure this will definitely be delicious and liked by everyone.

Basically this is done as a gravy called ‘Badanekayi Ennegai’ in which the masala is stuffed inside the round Indian eggplant variety and cooked in oil.

I wanted to do a quick and easy brinjal masala to go with ragi rotti, and thought of doing it this way. ‘Badanekayi’ means eggplant/brinjal and ‘Palya’ means any vegetable stir fry, in Kannada. I can say the masala ingredients used for this is pretty much similar to the other gravy variety I mentioned about. This was a huge hit at home, as my husband who otherwise does not like egglant, did help himself with multiple servings of this 😉

Also, you can prepare the masala powder in bulk and keep it handy whenever you want to use. But you may replace fresh coconut with dry coconut or skip it completely while making the bulk masala powder and add it later while preparing the dish. This ensures a longer shelf life of the masala powder. Additionally, you may use the same masala with any other vegetable like Okra, Ivy Gourd, Capsicum or mixed vegetables and make a similar side dish.

Being dominant in the flavour of peanuts, this ‘Badanekayi Shenga Palya / Eggplant Peanut Dry Sabji’ goes very well with ragi rotti or with chapathi, akki rotti, jowar roti. Serve it for breakfast or pack it for lunch box and I’m sure this will definitely be delicious and liked by everyone.

Serve this eggplant peanut masala with this Soft Ragi Rotti | Ukkarisida Ragi Rotti that goes perfectly well with it. (Click to check the detailed recipe)

You may also like to try Mixed Vegetable Poha Kofta Curry Recipe (Non-Fried) that goes great with any Indian flatbread. 

So let us get started with the recipe of this delicious and easy to make ‘Badanekayi Shenga Palya | Eggplant Peanut Dry Sabji’. Shall we? 

 Course: Side Dish | Makes:3-4 Servings | Preparation Time: 15-20 minutes | Cooking Time: 20-25 minutes| Cuisine:  Karnataka | Measure: 1 cup= 250ml | Author: Praneetha A Goutham 

[recipe-ingredients]

Tsp: Teaspoon | Tbsp: Tablespoon

To make Masala Powder
– 1 tsp Oil
– 1 tsp White Sesame Seeds, hulled
– 4 tbsps Peanuts, with skin
– 2 tsps Coriander Seeds / Dhania
– 1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds
– 2 tsps Channa Dal
– 1 tsp Urad Dal
– 8-10 Byadagi Dry Red Chillies, more or less as per taste (refer notes 1)
– 2-3 tbsp fresh grated coconut or dry coconut
– marble sized Tamarind
– 1 tsp Jaggery powder / a small piece of jaggery

To cook the Eggplant
– 2 tsps Oil (I have used sunflower oil)
– 1 tsp Mustard Seeds
– 2 sprigs of Curry Leaves
– 1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
– a pinch of Asafoetida
– around 2 cups sliced Eggplants (long Chinese Eggplant or the small fairy tale Eggplant)
– Salt to taste
– 3-4 sprigs of Coriander leaves, finely chopped- to garnish [/recipe-ingredients] [recipe-directions]

Making the Masala Powder:

1. To make the powder, we have to roast all the ingredients mentioned under ‘To make Masala Powder’ except tamarind and jaggery.

2. In a pan dry roast sesame seeds, peanuts and coriander seeds individually on a low-medium heat. So that each of them turn aromatic and change the colour slightly. Once done transfer them onto a plate so that they cool down.

3. Now roast dry red chillies until they turn aromatic. Put them on a plate. Next roast fresh grated coconut until the colour changes to light brown. Alternatively, you may use dry coconut. You need not have to roast it.

4. To the same pan, add 1 tsp oil. Once it turns hot, add cumin seeds, urad dal, channa dal. Fry them until the dal turn brown in colour. Transfer this onto the same plate and let it cool.

5. Once all the roasted ingredients cool down, transfer them (except coconut-refer notes 2) into a mixer jar along with tamarind and jaggery. Pulse this 2-3 times to a coarse powder. Make sure you do not blend too much as the peanuts will release oil. Next add roasted coconut and pulse it once or twice just enough to mix everything thoroughly. Do not add water during the blending process. [/recipe-directions][recipe-directions title=false]

Making the Eggplant Peanut Dry Sabji / Badanekayi Shenga Palya:

1. Slice the eggplants and put them in water so as to avoid them from turning brown.

2. Take a pan, add 2 tsps oil. Once it gets hot, add mustard seeds. Once they crackle, add curry leaves, turmeric powder, asafoetida powder.

3. Now add sliced eggplants (drain the water before adding them). Saute for a couple of minutes. Add some salt and let it cook upto around 80%.

4. Once they are almost cooked, add the prepared masala powder. Give it a good mix. Be gentle, do not mash the eggplants. Let this cook for few more minutes until the eggplants cook completely, but not mushy.

5. Finally, check for salt, and garnish with freshly chopped coriander leaves. [/recipe-directions]

Notes:
1. You may use any other less heat more colour variety of dry red chilly. If not, you can use the usual high heat low colour variety of dry red chillies too, but the colour of the sabji will be lighter. Also, you can mix both varieties of dry red chillies. Say around 6 Byadagi/Kashmiri red chilli and 3-4 Guntur/Spicy variety dry red chilly. Quantity of dry red chilli can be altered as per taste.

2. Blend all the ingredients except coconut initially, to make sure everything is ground properly. Then add coconut and pulse.

3. Apart from the eggplant varieties mentioned above you may also use the green coloured variety.

4. If you still prefer having this in a gravy form, you may add some water AFTER adding the masala powder and cook well, or blend the powder with some water and add this to half cooked eggplants.

5. You might want to add the masala powder in steps, if you are not sure about the spice level. Add some to the eggplants, mix and cook for few minutes. Give it a taste and add more if required. For the quantity of all the ingredients mentioned, I used the powder completely.

Method to Prepare Badanekayi Palya | Eggplant Masala Dry with Stepwise Pictures

Making the Masala Powder:

1. In a pan dry roast sesame seeds, peanuts and coriander seeds individually on a low-medium heat. So that each of them turn aromatic and change the colour slightly. Once done transfer them onto a plate so that they cool down.

2. Now roast dry red chillies until they turn aromatic. Put them on a plate. Next roast fresh grated coconut until the colour changes to light brown. Alternatively, you may use dry coconut. You need not have to roast it.

3. To the same pan, add 1 tsp oil. Once it turns hot, add cumin seeds, urad dal, channa dal and dry red chillies. Fry them until the dal turn brown in colour. Transfer this onto the same plate and let it cool.

3. Once all the roasted ingredients cool down, transfer them (except coconut-refer notes 2) into a mixer jar along with tamarind and jaggery. Pulse this 2-3 times to a coarse powder. Make sure you do not blend too much as the peanuts will release oil and make the powder lumpy.

4.  Next add roasted coconut and pulse it once or twice just enough to mix everything thoroughly. Do not add water during the blending process. Now the masala powder is ready.

Making the Eggplant Masala Dry / Badanekayi Palya:

1. Slice the eggplants and put them in water so as to avoid them from turning brown.

2. Take a pan, add 2 tsps oil. Once it gets hot, add mustard seeds. Once they crackle, add curry leaves, turmeric powder, asafoetida powder.

3. Now add sliced eggplants (drain the water before adding them). Saute for a couple of minutes. Add some salt and let it cook upto around 80%.

4. Once they are almost cooked, add the prepared masala powder. Give it a good mix. Be gentle, do not mash the eggplants. Let this cook for few more minutes until the eggplants cook completely, but not mushy.

4. Finally, check for salt, and garnish with freshly chopped coriander leaves.

Garnish with coriander leaves

Serve hot with Soft Ragi Rotti,

I hope you give this recipe a try and enjoy it as much as I enjoyed preparing it and writing it down for you all. I would love to hear your feedbacks on this. When you try it, kindly post your valuable comments below or share it with me personally on Instagram / Facebook, or post it with due credits. You may also pin it on Pinterest.