Overhead shot of ready to be served oven roasted eggplant

Oven Roasted Eggplant

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Here’s a quick and delicious oven roasted eggplant recipe for those days when you’re too lazy to make something elaborate, yet want to fill up your healthy veggie quota for the day. A generous sprinkle of easily available spices on the eggplant slices is what makes this my favorite. Toss them into Andhra style gutti vankaya gravy or simply have them on the side with sambar or rasam rice. You’ll surely want more after just one bite…

Great to know if you do not like eggplant

Kathirikkai (Eggplant in Tamil) is one of those veggies that people often have strong, diverse opinions about with several in my extended family expressing strong dislikes towards it. My family and I, however, are firmly in the camp of eggplant fans. One has to cook this vegetable with a generous drizzle of oil and season it correctly. When it gets caramelized in the oven or on the stove top in a cheena chatti (cast iron wok) it can become addictive…even for those picky eaters! Let’s dive in…

Overhead shot of Oven Roasted Eggplant

What you will need to make Oven Baked Eggplant

Ingredients

Note: 1 cup = 235 ml

  1. 1 large onion, red
  2. 2 large globe eggplants, purple Italian
  3. 2 tsp. Kashmiri red chili powder
  4. ½ tsp. cumin powder
  5. A pinch of turmeric
  6. 4 tsp. cooking oil
  7. Salt to taste (I used 1 tsp. Iodized table salt)
Ingredients shot for oven roasted eggplant

Equipment

  1. Baking tray
  2. Flat spatula

A note on key ingredients

Eggplant in India is known as brinjal and is regarded as the king of vegetables owing to its versatility. It can vary from a simple stir fry, stuffed brinjal, mixed in with rice (vangi bhath), to being a key addition to stews, chutneys and gravy. The options are endless. In addition to that, these are exceptionally nutritious (more info on the World’s 100 Healthiest Foods page) and are a great way to add veggies from the ‘Other’ subgroup in your diet.  


How to prepare Oven Baked Eggplant – An Overview

Slice the eggplants, arrange them on a baking tray, smear spices of choice, drizzle oil and bake. That’s all. 

Tips before you begin

📝 Eggplants change color when cut (due to oxidation). To prevent them from discoloring, soak the cut eggplant slices in water until they are ready to go in the oven

📝Certain mature eggplants have a bitter taste and in order to remove that, you have two options – 1) salt the cut vegetable, let it sweat, and rinse it under running water before cooking or alternatively 2) simply soak the eggplant in salted water for half an hour, drain and cook. Salting can also help the eggplant absorb less oil, particularly when you’re frying it for eggplant fritters (bajjis), and it helps flavor the eggplant by allowing it to pull salt into the vegetable. Thanks to my friend Dipika for this tip during one of our tea time chats


How to make Oven Roasted Eggplant – Instructions with step-by-step images

Cut and arrange

Step 1 – Thinly slice one medium size red onion, add ½ tsp. Kashmiri red chili powder, ¼ tsp. cumin powder, ¼ tsp. salt, a pinch of turmeric, 1 tsp. oil, mix well and set aside to marinate.

Step 2 – Next, wash and slice 2 large Italian eggplants and arrange them in the baking tray as shown in the image below

Smear

Step 3 – Smear the layered eggplant slices with 1 ½ tsp. Kashmiri red chili powder, ¼ tsp. cumin powder, ¾ tsp. salt, drizzle the remaining 3 tsp. oil and layer the marinated onion slices over it as shown in the image below

Bake and serve

Step 4 – Bake for 10-12 minutes on 350° F in a preheated oven. Then transfer to a serving bowl ready to be served

Step 5 – Enjoy your sublime oven roasted eggplant on the side with steamed rice, roti or savor it just like that for a zero carb meal😋

Overhead shot of burning hot oven roasted eggplant

How this oven roasted eggplant recipe made it to my kitchen 

When a large eggplant makes it to my shopping cart, it implies baingan bharta is on the menu that week. This is true for most Indian households. That was the case in my kitchen too until I learnt to use the convection oven for roasting vegetables for larger batches, especially on occasions when I do not feel like babysitting the pan. Oven roasting and air frying both come in handy for those days when my body decides to limit its movements (which happens to me quite often, thanks to my herniated discs). During one such unexpected rough week, an eggplant in my fridge was beckoning me to make our favorite bharta. Baingan bharta is a somewhat messy recipe and needs a little extra cleanup work afterwards and I wasn’t feeling up to it. My trusty sous chefs, my Breville food processor and my convection oven came to the rescue. I simply sliced the eggplant in the processor, lined them on the tray along with some onions and popped it in the oven hoping for magic to happen. It sure did not disappoint – surprisingly, it came out so well that my children now make this when I am out of action. My family wished for this recipe to be made available here for you to enjoy when you are short of time or just don’t feel up to it 🤗

Related Recipes


Recipe Card – Oven Roasted Eggplant

Oven Roasted Eggplant

Recipe by Sublime RecipesCourse: Uncategorized
Servings

4

servings
Prep time

30

minutes
Cooking time

40

minutes
Total time

1

hour 

10

minutes

What You Will Need to make roasted eggplant

  • Ingredients
  • 1 large onion, red

  • 2 large eggplants, purple Italian

  • 2 tsp. Kashmiri red chili powder

  • ½ tsp. cumin powder

  • A pinch of turmeric

  • 4 tsp. cooking oil

  • Salt to taste (I used 1 tsp. Iodized table salt)

  • Equipment
  • Baking tray

  • Flat spatula

Intructions for roasted eggplant recipe

  • Cut and arrange
  • Thinly slice one medium size red onion, add ½ tsp. Kashmiri red chili powder, ¼ tsp. cumin powder, ¼ tsp. salt, a pinch of turmeric, 1 tsp. oil, mix well and set aside to marinate
  • Next, wash and slice 2 large Italian eggplants and arrange them in the baking tray as shown in the step-by-step images above
  • Smear
  • Smear the layered eggplant slices with 1 ½ tsp. Kashmiri red chili powder, ¼ tsp. cumin powder, ¾ tsp. salt, drizzle the remaining 3 tsp. oil and layer the marinated onion slices over it as shown in the step-by-step images
  • Bake and serve
  • Bake for 10-12 minutes on 350° F in a preheated oven. Then transfer to a serving bowl ready to be served
  • Enjoy your sublime oven roasted eggplant on the side with steamed rice, roti or savor it just like that for a zero carb meal😋

Variations

Nutrition Facts

FAQs

❔ Can I make oven roasted eggplant ahead of time

You could, however it just doesn’t taste as well. I prefer making it just before serving

❔ Can I make this with other varieties of eggplants

I’m sure you can but since I haven’t tested them yet, I do not have a detailed recipe for that. I would love to hear from you if you have tried a variation of this

Thank you!

Thank you for stopping by. If you’ve tried this recipe, I would love to hear from you. Please add your comments below and / or rate this recipe. Your feedback will help me improve and share better recipes with you. Also, please consider subscribing to my newsletter using the signup form below.

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4 Comments

  1. Hi Aparna, Great Work on all your recipes. You definitely take great care and precision on the recipes you post. Shows your dedication and you sure are a Cooking artist.
    Loved the eggplant recipe and I have tried it too. Everyone in my family loved it. I am one of those who looks to spend as less time in kitchen as possible and also have delicious food on the table😀. This recipe definitely fits the criteria. Let the new recipes coming in. 🙏

    • Thanks so much Harini! I am glad your family loved this recipe. Also thanks for giving me feedback on what type of recipes you’d like to see here, I will try to post more of those quick and easy ones soon.

  2. Looks lovely, eggplant happens to be one of my favorites. I’ll definitely give it a try.

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