Aloo baingan masala is a hearty vegetarian Indian dish made up of spiced potatoes and eggplant. It’s so simple to make and delicious too!
Aloo baingan masala is a dish where potatoes and eggplant are cooked in a tasty spiced onion tomato sauce. It sounds like it takes a while to make but you can actually have the whole thing done in 15 minutes – from prep to placing it onto the dinner table. Really! With a 4 minute cook time and no need to wait for pressure to release, this dish is an absolute breeze to make. As long as you’ve got my pre-made onion masala ready to go that is!
Okay, okay before you say “I knew there was a catch” just hear me out! If you spend a bit of time making a batch of onion masala one day, you will save you SO much time when it comes to cooking Indian recipes! This is how a lot of Indian people are able to cook Indian dishes daily. This is our way of “meal prepping.” We make a batch of masala and cook up fresh meals in minutes. Plus, it’s so easy to make onion masala in an Instant Pot.
I’m sharing everything you need to know about this magic masala in an onion masala series that I’m sharing on the blog this month. This recipe for aloo baingan is part of the series! Check out this post to learn all about the series. The gist: I’m sharing recipes that call for exact amounts of onion masala to help make Indian cooking easier for you on a daily basis.
There are many different ways to make aloo baingan – you can play with the spices as well as the texture of the dish. It’s kind of amazing how this dish can really vary in flavor. For example, I have a delicious achari aloo baingan recipe which is made without tomatoes and with completely different spices. I also use whole small eggplants in that recipe so the texture is different too.
This recipe for aloo baingan is more like a sabzi that you’d scoop up with an Indian flatbread though you can certainly serve it with basmati rice too. It has some gravy but it’s not a super soupy curry. The eggplant is soft and mashed which means that every bit of it is full of flavor and the potatoes are cooked until perfectly tender. If you’ve ever had bharta before, it’s sort of like that but with potatoes. You’ll love it!
I feel like there are certain veggies that soak up flavor extraordinarily well and potatoes and eggplants are certainly on that list (along with cauliflower of course). This dish requires minimal effort (again, as long as you have the masala ready to go) and makes for a perfect and healthy weeknight meal. The potatoes add body to the dish and also make it more filling.
If you make this dish, I’d love to hear what you think! And be sure to check out all of my other onion masala recipes as well!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon oil
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- ½ - 1 serrano pepper minced (adjust to taste)
- 2-3 medium gold potatoes approx. 1 pound, chopped into 1-inch pieces
- 1 medium to large eggplant approx. 1 ½ pounds, chopped
- ¼ cup water
- ½ cup frozen or fresh/thawed onion masala (click here for recipe)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon garam masala
- Cilantro garnish
Instructions
- Press the sauté button then add the oil and allow it a minute to heat up. Once the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds and serrano pepper to the pot. When the cumin seeds turn brown, add the remaining ingredients (I don't even bother mixing).
- Secure lid, close the pressure valve and cook for 4 minutes at high pressure.
- Open the valve to quick release any remaining pressure.
- Mix well, garnish with cilantro and serve.
Notes
- This recipe is part of my onion masala series – be sure to check it out!
Amy says
Delicious! Used a whole Serrano pepper, with seeds, and had just the right amount of heat (for us lol). One question: what could you serve with this? Just to make it a little bit of a fuller meal. Thanks Ashley!
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Amy, I’m so glad you liked this recipe! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂
Linda Taylor says
Hi Ashley!
It’s me again.
So this is my third recipe I’ve tried. Obviously I’m a fan of your recipes.
Because I’ve got a lot of eggplants from my garden, and potatoes too, AND I made the onion masala yesterday, this seemed like a good recipe to try next.
Once again, I needed to convert the recipe to a stovetop version. I doubled the recipe because I have that many eggplants and my eggplants are the smaller asian types. I figure what you say is a pound of veggies is approximately 2 cups chunked so I ended up using 6 cups of eggplant and 4 cups of mixed red, white and yellow new potatoes…all from my garden. I used maybe 1 Tblsp of my roasted jalapeños from my garden, instead of serranos, and it still was a bit too “hot” for me. Dang those jalapeños are hot! I ended up adding an additional 1/2 cup water and cooking the veggies in the “gravy” for about 40 mins. All the veggies kept their shape in a nice amount of gravy. Very yummy. I’ve got two quart ziplock bags (flattened) in the frig cooling down and then will transfer to freezer later. We’ll see how it freezes. The only thing I’d do differently is change the ratio of potatoes to eggplant with more eggplant. But that’s my own particular preference and had nothing to do with your recipe.
Thanks once again for a delicious dish. 💜
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Linda, I’m loving your comments – thanks for taking the time to leave them! I bet everything tastes even better when made with fresh veggies! As someone who kills everything I attempt to grow (can’t even keep flowers alive), I have to tell you I’m jealous!
Linda Taylor says
Dear Ashley,
This is the first recipe I tried of yours. I had to adjust it to a stovetop version since I don’t have an IP which was easy enough. I’ve tried it using various greens bought at organic store, following your tips for creamiest. All were yummy. Because the greens cost so much, I wanted to grow my own. Even found seed for a green that is a spinach-mustard combo. Score! Swiss chard is not a green I particularly like but neighbor grew some and shared with me, so being as I’m not one to waste food, I threw the leaves into a batch with my fav greens I grew: collards, kale, spinach, mustard…still yummy. I leave out the cayenne and use a tiny bit of roasted jalapeños from my garden in place of serranos and I find it’s just the right amount of heat for me.
Because I’ve loved this recipe so much, I aspired to give your onion masala a go. I’ll review it too.
Thank you. 💜
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Linda, I’m so glad you made and enjoyed this! Thank you for coming back to leave a review for the aloo baingan! If you love greens, give my saag or palak paneer a try – it’s a great way to use up any garden greens!
SMS says
Do you remove the seeds from the Serrano peppers?
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Hi, you can remove the rib and seeds from the serrano if you’d like it to be less spicy.
Moshe says
I don’t have instant pot and I’m not very familiar with it. If I read this recipe correctly you’re getting perfectly cooked potatoes and eggplants in just a few minutes? Also saw one of your Daal recipes and it said 7 minutes – I usually cook lentils an hour or so to make soup. Am I missing something here? Or is Instant Pot the next big thing I need for my kitchen? We’re a vegetarian family so I’m very interested in the ability to make veggie dishes quickly.
Thanks for a great food blog!
My Heart Beets says
Hi Moshe! The instant pot is the next big thing you need for your kitchen lol 😉 Join my IP Facebook group – you can do so much with an instant pot.
Christine says
Unfortunately, this didn’t work…the Instant Pot (6 quart) gave the burn message right after it came to pressure. I had thought 1/4 cup of water would not be enough (usually, instant pot instructions insist on 2 cups liquid), so I doubled it to 1/2 cup, still with skepticism. Indeed, when I opened the pot, it was burned on the bottom. I noticed your recipe for the similar Aloo Matar calls for 1 1/2 cups water. I’ll try that next time.
My Heart Beets says
Hi Christine, I’m sorry that it burned for you! I’m surprised that it burned with a half cup of water. I’m not sure why that happened – the valve was closed and the silicone ring on properly, right?
Debbie Finkelstein says
The first time I made this I also got a burn signal. I realized that it was because I stirred it and some of the ingredients stuck. The next time I followed Ashley’s instructions and didn’t stir. It didn’t burn at all. I just stirred well when it was finished. I’ve made it a few times since then and never again got a burn signal. Love this dish!
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Happy to hear that this worked out well for you 🙂
Steph says
Is it possible to substitute the potato for a low carb vegetable option, like radish or cauliflower?
My Heart Beets says
Steph, I haven’t tried with a low carb veggie but this is a tough one. Radish will definitely alter the flavor and while cauliflower won’t change the flavor as much, the texture will be different. If I had to choose between the two, I’d vote cauli. I’m also wondering how parsnip would do – that might be a good replacement actually. Let me know how it goes if you try with one of these, very curious!
Hazel says
Hi! Can I cook this on the stovetop instead of IP? If so, what changes would I need to make?
Rahul Shandilya says
I made this recipe in a cast iron dutch oven on stovetop last night. It took longer (around 15-20) minutes for potatoes to cook and I had to double the water – everything else was perfect.
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Rahul, thanks for sharing! Great to know it turned out well for you on the stovetop 🙂
Lila Moran says
Hi! I am excited to try this recipe, but I currently have a bunch of small eggplants in the fridge. Is it ok to use these instead of the larger one? If so, would you make any changes? Thank you!
My Heart Beets says
You can use them! Do they look like the ones in my achari aloo baingan post? If so you can make it that way too – they look prettier when you keep them whole!
Josh says
Thank you for this recipe! It was top on the search results for “potatoes and eggplant instant pot” and I had the potatoes and eggplant on hand with no real plan, so it was perfect. Unfortunately I did not have onions or tomatoes on hand, but a 12 oz jar of Rogan Josh sauce with another 8 oz of water (rinsing the jar) for the right consistency did the trick. Everything was delicious I definitely want to cook again with the onion masala. The cook time and chop sizes were perfect.
My Heart Beets says
Josh, so glad you liked this! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂 Great to know that sauce worked well!