Since late last year I’ve been on a mission to add to my repertoire or vegetarian Parsi dishes. And one of the conditions was that the dishes I learn should not contain potato because all the vegetarian dishes I make end up having potato and hence are not the most healthy of dishes to eat.

In this pursuit I came across Ravaiya.

Even though Parsis claim this dish as ours, Ravaiya is traditionally a Gujarati dish where baby brinjals are stuffed with different things. Some stuff them with spiced crushed peanuts and some simply marinate them and cook it along with a tomato gravy of sorts. The Parsi version is quite different to this and is a more dry preparation with the brinjals being stuffed with a green coconut chutney.

The first time I ate Ravaiya it was at my friend K’s house where her mom had made these for my vegetable-loving mum. She used the long thin light purple aubergines and had lightly tied them with twine to keep the chutney in. Before this I had only really eaten brinjals sliced and fried or in a moussaka so this was quite a revelation. Since then, I’ve tried making Ravaiya with various different aubergines and with different kinds of chutney until I’ve narrowed down to the version I like best – made with small dark purple brinjals, first fried and then cooked in the chutney itself.

If you’re thinking of making this at home know that Ravaiya is a great dish by itself by typically I like to serve it with Dhandar or even as a pre-cursor to a brilliant plate of Kaju Chicken.

And finally, before I share the recipe a special thank you to my friend Alok Verma for styling the above shot – he blogs at All About The Palate – and to Smita Vinchurkar for the lovely food shot.