Meals on a Budget - Baingan Bharta (warm, creamy eggplant salad)

Meals on a Budget

Recipe: Baingan Bharta, or Eggplant from the Gods

Recipe courtesy of Aarti Sequira of Food Network

Cost Analysis

First, let's do a cost analysis, just to see how badly this meal sets us back monetarily:

Eggplant (2): 1.38

Onion (1): 0.17

Garlic (4 cloves, roughly 1/4 a whole): 0.20

Cilantro (1/4 cup chopped, roughly 1/2 a bunch): 0.17

Greek yogurt: 1.43

Rice:  Because you need rice to make a meal here...

If you buy in bulk, let's say all the rice needed costs about 0.50.  We're being generous, and assuming you have sumo wrestlers in the house that really like their rice.

Total cost:  $3.87

Cost per meal: $0.97

Weight Watchers points per meal (if you watch the rice): 4

So.. is it worth it?  I say yes.  I feel like I ate well and bountiful.... after all I'm doing this for the health benefits right now.  We're only looking at the monetary cost as an aside at the moment.

Recipe

I got this straight from the Food Network, let me state that up front.  I'm not this creative, nor do I have the experience with creating such wonderful Indian yet tailored to American palates as Aarti does.

Anyway, with that disclaimer, you start with a few items.  First, you need eggplant, two whole, which you stick in the oven to roast for a long, long time.

Then you need the other stuff:

This is one whole chopped onion, a minced serrano chili, 4 cloves of minced garlic, 1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro, and salt.

While the eggplant is doing its thing in the oven, get the onions nice and brown in as little oil as you can:

When they look like this, you're good:

By now the eggplant must surely be done.  Peel it with your Kevlar fingers:

What, you don't have Kevlar fingers?  Use a fork or tongs or something.  I honestly have no clue how to advise you on this if you are unable to turn veggies on the grill by hand or peel an eggplant with fingers fresh out of a 350 F oven.  Figure it out.  You're smart, you can do this.

When the eggplant are peeled:

Chop them up:

Add them to the onions:

Add the other stuff, too:

Sautee for a short bit (a min or two) and add the spices:

A half tsp each ground cumin and ground turmeric...  Turmeric makes it look great, cumin makes it taste great.  Good eats, my friends, good eats.  Add 2 C greek yogurt, mix well, and this is what you wind up with:

It doesn't actually photograph that well unless you have it positioned on top of a bowl of really white rice in a white bowl in good, natural light.  It's a beautiful yellow from the turmeric, with flecks of bright green from the cilantro, and I would've photographed it better for you had I not been so hungry by the time dinner was finished that I ate quite too quickly and now have a tummy ache and next to no motivation to photograph any more food.  It was that good.

Yum.  It was so good....  I wish I had  bigger stomach.

And that, my friends, is what 4 WWPPV and $0.97 can buy you.

Stay hungry and good eats.