Eggplant Curry (baingan-bharta)

I am an eggplant FANATIC – love all dishes eggplant; favorite color is even purple! My mom’s side of the family is Indian and so my grandmother (lucky for me) cooks tons of curries and other yummy Indian dishes. I LOVE her food, it’s so delicious! I was very ill for a few years and had to be hospitalized and almost lost my life. As I was healing however, my internal system needed to rebuild itself entirely which led to me not being able to tolerate a lot of foods, and particularly large quantities of oils. It’s common knowledge that Indian food is very healthy but also has the ability to be very oily and many of my fav dishes were those that were deep-fried….this was a huge challenge for my grandma as she wanted to be able to cook for me but had to re-work a lot of her recipes to be oil-free. Since she has done this though, she actually finds that the flavors of her curries are so enhanced and that her and my grandfather feel so much better by reducing the oil in their diets as well. So, after that long story, this is my favorite dish – an eggplant curry – made sans oil and it’s just delicious! I’m so happy to be able to share it and hope you all enjoy it too!