Rasavangi, a dish that's one of my favorites, features the wonderful eggplant. I know it seems like I'm on eggplant overload right now, but hey, can one ever have too many recipes starring this wonderful veggie? I, for one, don't think so.
For the Rasavangi, I used a variety I planted this year in my tiny vegetable garden. It's goes by the cheesy name of Lavender Touch and has a beautiful white color with lavender streaks and tender white flesh (the one in the picture looks more purple than is typical). Believe me, this eggplant is almost too good-looking to eat.
I used red lentils, or masoor dal, although tuvar dal is the more traditional ingredient for Rasavangi. There's a story behind this: I used to cook the tuvar dal in my handy dandy pressure cooker, because the cooker does a great job of reducing it to the nice, mushy consistency I love in any sambar.
But my big, gorgeous dog Lucy has a tremendous fear of all things noisy, and the hiss of the pressure cooker tops her list. A close second are thunderstorms. Since the DC area is racked by thunderstorms almost every other day in the summer, Lucy is in a perpetual state of panic these days, with her tongue hanging out, tiny whiny noises coming out of her throat. She is so acutely aware of the pressure cooker that she doesn't even wait for the hiss: she recognizes the distinctive clink the cooker makes when I take it out of the kitchen cupboard and put it on the countertop. The next minute I hear her feet thumping down the basement stairs as she flies for cover.
So despite Desi's objections- he feels, guy-like, that Lucy has to get over it- I have tried to minimize my use of the pressure cooker as much as possible. In the past few months, I've found I can use the microwave to cook most lentils, but tuvar dal takes inordinately long and never comes out quite as well-done as I like it to be.
So pink lentils it was for the Rasavangi, and a good thing too, because not only do they cook up in a jiffy, they tasted absolutely wonderful.
What's more, Lucy couldn't be happier…well, almost. Mommie can't do anything about the thunderstorms.
Looking for more tasty vegan eggplant recipes?
- Brinjal Pulippu Kootu, South Indian Eggplant Dal
- Vegan African Peanut Stew with Eggplant and Okra
- Pulao with Eggplant
Rasavangi Recipe:
Rasavangi
Ingredients
- 2 medium eggplants , chopped into small, even-sized pieces
- ¾ cup lentils (pink lentils or masoor dal, boiled until very soft)
- 2 teaspoon sambar powder
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 sprig curry leaves
- 1 tablespoon tamarind concentrate
- A pinch asafetida (hing)
- 2 dry red chilies
For the masala:
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 1 tablespoon chana dal (bengal gram dal)
- 1 dry red chili
- ¼ cup coconut shreds
For the tadka or tempering:
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 2 dry red chili peppers
- 2 teaspoon urad dal (black gram lentils)
Instructions
- Make the masala by heating the oil and adding the masala ingredients to it, then stir-frying them until the coriander is lightly golden and fragrant. Remove to a blender and, using just enough water, make a smooth paste.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a deep saucepan. Add the eggplant and curry leaves and cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes until the eggplant is quite tender.
- Add the tamarind water, sambar powder, and the ground spice paste and let them boil together for a few minutes.
- Add the lentils and simmer 8-10 minutes on a low flame for the flavors to merge
- For the tadka, heat the oil in a small saucepan. Add mustard seeds, red chilies and black gram.
- Take off heat as soon as the lentils turn golden-brown. Add to the rasavangi.
- Garnish with chopped coriander.
- Rasavangi tastes absolutely delicious served hot with rice. Enjoy!
Bharathy
Lovely dish!.. :)(though I have not tried rasavangi)..
Lovely post..
Love Lucy!..:)
Cheers and hugs 🙂
Bharathy
Latha Narasimhan
Kathirika plant looks so beautiful! Nice rasavangi recipe and interesting post! 🙂
Lucy is cute! :))
A_and_N
Hey when you can grow such great eggplants, its absolutely cool to be on an overload 😉 Lovely post! Loved the rasavaangi.
Priti
Rasavangi looks lovely and Lucy taking 1st place for that..
Suganya
I see pink lentils only in your blog, and not in my neighborhood stores. Eggplant rasavangi is the absolute best, followed by gosthu.
Miri
Vaishali, this sounds really good - but the funny thing is I have seen a recipe (and even made it twice) for Rasavangi from Mallika Badrinath's book and if I remember correctly its completely different from this one - double beans, coconut milk etc!! I should go back home and check this...
Katie
That is one attractive eggplant! And an adorable dog.
Thanks for the note about my earrings - I actually started selling them online (www.IndigoRiverJewelry.etsy.com) if you're interested.
Shreya
Hi vaishali, 'Rasavangi' is a name I have never heard of. But the recipe is just great, and I know I can make it! Your eggplant is amazing:-) Lucy is so cute. I have passed the Booky MeMe tag to you:-)
delhibelle
Rasvangi looks wonderful..thanks for another eggplant recipe, I love eggplants..keep'em coming:)
Lavi
Rasavangi looks absolutely delicious vaishali..you are a great mom. Lucy is very lucky!
Cham
Did u started those brinjal from seeds? They re pretty good 🙂 Rasavangi looks delicious Vaishu, Uma is so sweet she even made happy Lucy 🙂 I can imagine what Lucy should think for the pressure cooker whistle 🙂
Madhavi
Tempting rasavangi, very nice recipe!!!
evolvingtastes
Gorgeous colored eggplants, and the rasavangi sounds wonderful. I do make eggplant sambar, but I will have to try the extra step of grinding the spices besides the main powder.
Suma Rajesh
u have a lovly blog...yaa uma is very talented blogger..just awesome...ur rasavangi is tempting..luved all the snaps...
Divya Vikram
Lucy looks great..And nice diff recipe..
Uma
BTW, Lucy looks soooo cute.
Uma
Thanks for your sweet words about me. I am so glad that you liked my small gifts. Rasavangi is very new to me. Looks so mouth-watering Vaishali! Thanks for introducing a new delicious recipe. Have a great weekend.