Aubergeine Chickpea Biryani and Naan Bread
Hey guys!
So as you know, me + dis Baron are foodies and he is of Indian descent, so cooks out Indian stuff all the time. I am not privy to all these recipes with aubergine and lentils and chickpeas, because I’m not too much of a fan of those ingredients haha, but I had to expand so I’ve done a Naan bread recipe with this delicious Biryani.
Ingredients
Red Lentils
Vegetable Oil
Vegetable Stock
Aubergine
Chickpeas
Coriander
Lime
Lemon
Turmeric
Ginger
Ground Coriander
Chilli Powder
Garam Masala
Self-raising Flour
Plain Alpro Yogurt
Tofu
Chilli Flakes
So the first thing you need to do is prepare the naan, now I made three versions of this and this is the one I liked the best. You use a sachet of yeast, about 12g and you activate it by using warm water and I used about half a cup. The next step is to add bread flour, half a cup. The next step is to add yogurt or cottage cheese or a mix of tofu, half a cup. So this part I found really difficult and when I was making vegan versions the best was with Alpro yogurt, but I put loads of spices in as I didn’t love the flavor. With this one pictured its cottage cheese because it just bound really easily into the dough, my family was eating some so it was a pain to do but I am learning as I go. The dough was not as great as I would like so what I did was add chili flakes and more flour, about three tbsp to make it firm up, and I kneaded it until it was smooth and nonsticky. No stickiness at all! Once the dough looks great, leave to proof for about an hour which means you can go off and prepare your other bits, you can leave it under a damp teatowel covering the same bowl.
The base is easy, you just need to assemble three components. You need to brown off the onions, about one white onion. I cooked two cups of red lentils, you wash them for about five minutes they’re really weird flavored if you don’t and you have to be thorough. Then you bring to the boil and keep on high heat for about ten, low heat for about ten if they’re turning to mush take them off. That’s my guidance. Try and figure out how to do this on your hobs, because I have an induction hob, a gas hob, and an electric hob and they’re all totally different so I use induction for my recipes here because I cook in my grandma’s kitchen. It is a faster way of cooking, you can’t slow cook and it breaks down the solid part of the food before evaporating the water, so I’ve had to trial and error.
The next partis the aubergine, I used one large. I use onion salt so it flavors the pieces, but you can use salt to precook the vegetable. They’re actually bred to be less bitter so salting for bitterness is not needed anymore with commercial eggplants. Finally, grab half a can of chickpeas, drain them and cover them in lemon, pepper, garam masala and vegetable oil and roast in the oven for about 20 minutes to get a crispy, crunchy finish.
The next part is putting everything together into your pan with the onions in, add the juice of a whole lemon, coriander seeds one tsp, one tsp chili powder, one turmeric, one ginger, one garam masala and if you like some lime juice too. Then you just cook everything together and they form a sort of stew-like texture where the lentils start to break down, and that’s when the finish is there. You have it with just the naan or some rice. It’s an easy different style and if you wanted to add further starchy vegetables like potatoes, it would be amazing. I’m mega low carb so I avoid them aha!
Back to the naan. The dough was pretty easy with the cottage cheese, you could synthesize this from soya soft cheese and a scramble of tofu, which I have coming for Issue Six! You simply add oil to the pan and heat up until it’s about 3 minutes in, dividing the dough into four you then roll into shape and fry on both sides! They rise and look amazing and you just flip them over before you’re ready to serve. Everything should come together amazingly and I used coriander leaves on top.
Let me know what you think below!
