Indian Dahi baigan recipe made with instant pot yogurt and some pan roasted eggplants. This creamy, lightly spicy and mildly sweet dish is perfect with rice, roti or just as a side. Make it today and you will fall in love with my easy dahi baigan recipe.

Dahi baigan in Orissa is very different from the Kashmiri version. Our version is light and very much raita-like, where yogurt is not cooked. Just sautéed eggplant cubes or whole baby eggplants and added to seasoned yogurt.

But the other version is more like a curry with loads of Kashmiri chili and spices. I love both the versions. But this one is my personal favorite and the easiest one too. My Dahi baigan is inspired from my mom’s Oriya style Dahi Biagana recipe.

My Dahi Baigan recipe uses instant pot yogurt. I use this recipe for my instant pot yogurt.

In traditional version, eggplants are deep fried. But I always sauté my eggplant till soft and crispy around the edges. Another option is to air fry. You can even bake the entire batch. If you have a CrispLid, make use of that to crisp up your eggplants. This particular version of Dahi Baigan recipe is also a niramish version and doesn’t use any onion or garlic.

Feel free to choose any of these options to cook your eggplant before adding it to the yogurt sauce. Each method gives a different and satisfying result.

How to Make Dahi Baigan Recipe?

For making Dahi baigan, you will need these ingredients.

Ingredients Of Dahi Baigan Recipe:

1 ½ cup cubed Eggplants(large or Chinese purple variety) , 1 cup homemade yogurt (whisked with ¼ cup water)(if your yogurt is already thin, don’t want water), 2 green chilies, 1 dry red chili, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 2 stalks of curry leaves, ½ teaspoon mustard seeds, ½ teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder, ½ inch ginger or mango ginger grated, Salt to taste, ¼ teaspoon black salt (Kala namak), ⅓ teaspoon sugar, 1 to 2 tablespoon cooking oil

Method of Making Dahi Baigan:

Heat a pan(preferably, a cast iron or nonstick one) and add 1 tablespoon of oil.

Once the oil is hot, add eggplant cubes and sauté well. Reduce the heat and cover the pan so that eggplants are cooked well. Add salt at this point. (Don’t add a lot of salt as our yogurt sauce will be seasoned too)
Keep sautéing them in intervals to avoid eggplants sticking to the bottom of the pan. Also, keep an eye because eggplants can easily get overcooked.
Once eggplants are soft and brown around the edges, transfer them to a plate and set aside.

Clean the pan and now add, cumin seeds, curry leaves and dry roast both. The leaves should dry out whereas the cumin seeds should swell and turn dark.
After roasting both the ingredients, transfer them to mortal and pestle and crush them to a coarse powder.
Now take a big bowl or dish and add whisked yogurt in it.
Add 1 teaspoon (heaped) of the coarse cumin and curry leaf powder, kala namak or black salt, sugar, salt and grated ginger and mix well.
Taste the yogurt and adjust salt if needed. The yogurt sauce should taste mildly sweet and salty with a hint of ginger and cumin flavor.
Now add eggplants and mix well.
Heat a tadka pan and add remaining of the oil. Add mustard seeds and allow it to pop.
Now add sliced green chilies and the Kashmiri red chili powder, and switch off the heat.
Pour this tadka or tempered seasoning on the mixed yogurt and eggplant dish.
Serve as a side dish with rice and roti.

Vegan option:

It’s very simple to make this dish vegan. I always use coconut yogurt for making Dahi baigan for myself. Just swap the yogurt with coconut yogurt or soy yogurt. I prefer coconut yogurt over soy yogurt.

Instant pot version:

Use the instant pot sauté function to cook the eggplants, roast the spices and temper the final tadka. I always use the instant pot version if I have to make a big bag for parties and gatherings. My 6-quart instant pot is very handy for making a large batch of this dish.

Instant Pot Mealthy CrispLid Roasting:

Set the CrispLid to 375F and preheat for 3-minutes.
In a bowl, mix eggplants with 1 tablespoon oil and salt and set them aside for five minutes. The eggplants will lose some water. Drain the water and proceed to the next step.

Now add the cubes of eggplants to the CrispLid basket and cook them for 6-minutes and then flip and 4-minutes again. The eggplants will turn brown and crispy.
If you want softer eggplant, decrease the time to 4-minutes and then 3-minutes. The crispy eggplants turn soft once added to the yogurt sauce.
Always cook the eggplant cubes in batches to avoid crowding and undercooked eggplants.

📖 Recipe

Dahi Baigan Recipe

Indian Dahi baigan recipe with instant pot yogurt and some pan roasted eggplants. This creamy, lightly spicy and mildly sweet dish is perfect with rice, roti or just as a side. Make it today and you will fall in love.

5 from 7 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: curry, Side Dish

Cuisine: Indian

Keyword: Dahi Baigan, dahi baigana, Doi begun, eggplant raita, yogurt eggplant curry

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 10

Total Time: 20

Servings:

Calories: 74kcal

Author: Sophie

Cost: $5

Equipment

Instant pot

Ingredients

1 ½ cup cubed Eggplants, large or Chinese purple variety
1 cup homemade yogurt, whisked with ¼ cup water(if your yogurt is already thin, don’t want water)
2 green chilies
1 dry red chili
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 stalks of curry leaves
½ teaspoon mustard seeds
½ teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder
½ inch ginger or mango ginger grated
Salt to taste
¼ teaspoon black salt, Kala namak
⅓ teaspoon sugar
1 to 2 tablespoon cooking oil

Instructions

Heat a pan(preferably, a cast iron or nonstick one) and add 1 tablespoon of oil.
Once the oil is hot, add eggplant cubes and sauté well. Reduce the heat and cover the pan so that eggplants are cooked well. Add salt at this point. (Don’t add a lot of salt as our yogurt sauce will be seasoned too)
Keep sautéing them in intervals to avoid eggplants sticking to the bottom of the pan. Also, keep an eye because eggplants can easily get overcooked.
Once eggplants are soft and brown around the edges, transfer them to a plate and set aside.
Clean the pan and now add, cumin seeds, curry leaves and dry roast both. The leaves should dry out whereas the cumin seeds should swell and turn dark.
After roasting both the ingredients, transfer them to mortal and pestle and crush them to a coarse powder.
Now take a big bowl or dish and add whisked yogurt in it.
Add 1 teaspoon (heaped) of the coarse cumin and curry leaf powder, kala namak or black salt, sugar, salt and grated ginger and mix well.
Taste the yogurt and adjust salt if needed. The yogurt sauce should taste mildly sweet and salty with a hint of ginger and cumin flavor.
Now add eggplants and mix well.
Heat a tadka pan and add remaining of the oil. Add mustard seeds and allow it to pop.
Now add sliced green chilies and the Kashmiri red chili powder, and switch off the heat.
Pour this tadka or tempered seasoning on the mixed yogurt and eggplant dish.
Serve as a side dish with rice and roti.

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