Aloo baingan masala is a hearty vegetarian Indian dish made up of spiced potatoes and eggplant. It’s so simple to make and delicious too!
Aloo baingan masala is a dish where potatoes and eggplant are cooked in a tasty spiced onion tomato sauce. It sounds like it takes a while to make but you can actually have the whole thing done in 15 minutes – from prep to placing it onto the dinner table. Really! With a 4 minute cook time and no need to wait for pressure to release, this dish is an absolute breeze to make. As long as you’ve got my pre-made onion masala ready to go that is!
Okay, okay before you say “I knew there was a catch” just hear me out! If you spend a bit of time making a batch of onion masala one day, you will save you SO much time when it comes to cooking Indian recipes! This is how a lot of Indian people are able to cook Indian dishes daily. This is our way of “meal prepping.” We make a batch of masala and cook up fresh meals in minutes. Plus, it’s so easy to make onion masala in an Instant Pot.
I’m sharing everything you need to know about this magic masala in an onion masala series that I’m sharing on the blog this month. This recipe for aloo baingan is part of the series! Check out this post to learn all about the series. The gist: I’m sharing recipes that call for exact amounts of onion masala to help make Indian cooking easier for you on a daily basis.
There are many different ways to make aloo baingan – you can play with the spices as well as the texture of the dish. It’s kind of amazing how this dish can really vary in flavor. For example, I have a delicious achari aloo baingan recipe which is made without tomatoes and with completely different spices. I also use whole small eggplants in that recipe so the texture is different too.
This recipe for aloo baingan is more like a sabzi that you’d scoop up with an Indian flatbread though you can certainly serve it with basmati rice too. It has some gravy but it’s not a super soupy curry. The eggplant is soft and mashed which means that every bit of it is full of flavor and the potatoes are cooked until perfectly tender. If you’ve ever had bharta before, it’s sort of like that but with potatoes. You’ll love it!
I feel like there are certain veggies that soak up flavor extraordinarily well and potatoes and eggplants are certainly on that list (along with cauliflower of course). This dish requires minimal effort (again, as long as you have the masala ready to go) and makes for a perfect and healthy weeknight meal. The potatoes add body to the dish and also make it more filling.
If you make this dish, I’d love to hear what you think! And be sure to check out all of my other onion masala recipes as well!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon oil
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- ½ - 1 serrano pepper minced (adjust to taste)
- 2-3 medium gold potatoes approx. 1 pound, chopped into 1-inch pieces
- 1 medium to large eggplant approx. 1 ½ pounds, chopped
- ¼ cup water
- ½ cup frozen or fresh/thawed onion masala (click here for recipe)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon garam masala
- Cilantro garnish
Instructions
- Press the sauté button then add the oil and allow it a minute to heat up. Once the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds and serrano pepper to the pot. When the cumin seeds turn brown, add the remaining ingredients (I don't even bother mixing).
- Secure lid, close the pressure valve and cook for 4 minutes at high pressure.
- Open the valve to quick release any remaining pressure.
- Mix well, garnish with cilantro and serve.
Notes
- This recipe is part of my onion masala series – be sure to check it out!
Amy says
Delicious! Used a whole Serrano pepper, with seeds, and had just the right amount of heat (for us lol). One question: what could you serve with this? Just to make it a little bit of a fuller meal. Thanks Ashley!
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Amy, I’m so glad you liked this recipe! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂
Linda Taylor says
Hi Ashley!
It’s me again.
So this is my third recipe I’ve tried. Obviously I’m a fan of your recipes.
Because I’ve got a lot of eggplants from my garden, and potatoes too, AND I made the onion masala yesterday, this seemed like a good recipe to try next.
Once again, I needed to convert the recipe to a stovetop version. I doubled the recipe because I have that many eggplants and my eggplants are the smaller asian types. I figure what you say is a pound of veggies is approximately 2 cups chunked so I ended up using 6 cups of eggplant and 4 cups of mixed red, white and yellow new potatoes…all from my garden. I used maybe 1 Tblsp of my roasted jalapeños from my garden, instead of serranos, and it still was a bit too “hot” for me. Dang those jalapeños are hot! I ended up adding an additional 1/2 cup water and cooking the veggies in the “gravy” for about 40 mins. All the veggies kept their shape in a nice amount of gravy. Very yummy. I’ve got two quart ziplock bags (flattened) in the frig cooling down and then will transfer to freezer later. We’ll see how it freezes. The only thing I’d do differently is change the ratio of potatoes to eggplant with more eggplant. But that’s my own particular preference and had nothing to do with your recipe.
Thanks once again for a delicious dish. 💜
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Linda, I’m loving your comments – thanks for taking the time to leave them! I bet everything tastes even better when made with fresh veggies! As someone who kills everything I attempt to grow (can’t even keep flowers alive), I have to tell you I’m jealous!
Linda Taylor says
Dear Ashley,
This is the first recipe I tried of yours. I had to adjust it to a stovetop version since I don’t have an IP which was easy enough. I’ve tried it using various greens bought at organic store, following your tips for creamiest. All were yummy. Because the greens cost so much, I wanted to grow my own. Even found seed for a green that is a spinach-mustard combo. Score! Swiss chard is not a green I particularly like but neighbor grew some and shared with me, so being as I’m not one to waste food, I threw the leaves into a batch with my fav greens I grew: collards, kale, spinach, mustard…still yummy. I leave out the cayenne and use a tiny bit of roasted jalapeños from my garden in place of serranos and I find it’s just the right amount of heat for me.
Because I’ve loved this recipe so much, I aspired to give your onion masala a go. I’ll review it too.
Thank you. 💜
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Linda, I’m so glad you made and enjoyed this! Thank you for coming back to leave a review for the aloo baingan! If you love greens, give my saag or palak paneer a try – it’s a great way to use up any garden greens!
SMS says
Do you remove the seeds from the Serrano peppers?
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Hi, you can remove the rib and seeds from the serrano if you’d like it to be less spicy.
Moshe says
I don’t have instant pot and I’m not very familiar with it. If I read this recipe correctly you’re getting perfectly cooked potatoes and eggplants in just a few minutes? Also saw one of your Daal recipes and it said 7 minutes – I usually cook lentils an hour or so to make soup. Am I missing something here? Or is Instant Pot the next big thing I need for my kitchen? We’re a vegetarian family so I’m very interested in the ability to make veggie dishes quickly.
Thanks for a great food blog!
My Heart Beets says
Hi Moshe! The instant pot is the next big thing you need for your kitchen lol 😉 Join my IP Facebook group – you can do so much with an instant pot.
Christine says
Unfortunately, this didn’t work…the Instant Pot (6 quart) gave the burn message right after it came to pressure. I had thought 1/4 cup of water would not be enough (usually, instant pot instructions insist on 2 cups liquid), so I doubled it to 1/2 cup, still with skepticism. Indeed, when I opened the pot, it was burned on the bottom. I noticed your recipe for the similar Aloo Matar calls for 1 1/2 cups water. I’ll try that next time.
My Heart Beets says
Hi Christine, I’m sorry that it burned for you! I’m surprised that it burned with a half cup of water. I’m not sure why that happened – the valve was closed and the silicone ring on properly, right?
Debbie Finkelstein says
The first time I made this I also got a burn signal. I realized that it was because I stirred it and some of the ingredients stuck. The next time I followed Ashley’s instructions and didn’t stir. It didn’t burn at all. I just stirred well when it was finished. I’ve made it a few times since then and never again got a burn signal. Love this dish!
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Happy to hear that this worked out well for you 🙂
Steph says
Is it possible to substitute the potato for a low carb vegetable option, like radish or cauliflower?
My Heart Beets says
Steph, I haven’t tried with a low carb veggie but this is a tough one. Radish will definitely alter the flavor and while cauliflower won’t change the flavor as much, the texture will be different. If I had to choose between the two, I’d vote cauli. I’m also wondering how parsnip would do – that might be a good replacement actually. Let me know how it goes if you try with one of these, very curious!
Hazel says
Hi! Can I cook this on the stovetop instead of IP? If so, what changes would I need to make?
Rahul Shandilya says
I made this recipe in a cast iron dutch oven on stovetop last night. It took longer (around 15-20) minutes for potatoes to cook and I had to double the water – everything else was perfect.
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Rahul, thanks for sharing! Great to know it turned out well for you on the stovetop 🙂
Lila Moran says
Hi! I am excited to try this recipe, but I currently have a bunch of small eggplants in the fridge. Is it ok to use these instead of the larger one? If so, would you make any changes? Thank you!
My Heart Beets says
You can use them! Do they look like the ones in my achari aloo baingan post? If so you can make it that way too – they look prettier when you keep them whole!
Josh says
Thank you for this recipe! It was top on the search results for “potatoes and eggplant instant pot” and I had the potatoes and eggplant on hand with no real plan, so it was perfect. Unfortunately I did not have onions or tomatoes on hand, but a 12 oz jar of Rogan Josh sauce with another 8 oz of water (rinsing the jar) for the right consistency did the trick. Everything was delicious I definitely want to cook again with the onion masala. The cook time and chop sizes were perfect.
My Heart Beets says
Josh, so glad you liked this! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂 Great to know that sauce worked well!
HL says
Hi Ashley… I am planning to cook this tomorrow. Should I use small brinjal from Indian store or the big brinjal from Whole Foods?
My Heart Beets says
Hi! For this recipe I use the large eggplants which makes it more of a bharta. If you want the eggplant to keep it’s shape you can use the smaller ones as pictured in my achari aloo baingan recipe: https://myheartbeets.com/instant-pot-achari-aloo-baingan/
Christina says
This recipe was my first attempt at using the Instant Pot. Unfortunately, I apparently did something wrong and the potatoes were hot, but not cooked after 4 minutes, then another 4 mins then 6 mins. I am using the Lux60 model. I watched a couple instruction videos and thought (after sauteeing) that I just pushed “manual” then set the time for 4 minutes. I’d like to determine what I missed in the instructions! Thanks!
My Heart Beets says
Hi Christina, did you close the valve? Sounds like that could be a possible issue… Or perhaps the seal wasn’t on properly?
Samiksha Patel says
Would you be able to substitute baby eggplant?!
Sarla says
Thank you made this recipes taste very yummy. Please
I have to cook for 20 people can you tell how much eggplants and potatoes do I use
Thank you again
Sharon says
I made this tonight and it was super fast, easy and so tasty! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
My Heart Beets says
Sharon, thanks for letting me know how the aloo eggplant masala turned out for you!
iain says
Hi there,
I tried this yesterday and even though I didn’t have high hopes (I’m not a big fan of aubergine, I find it comes out tasteless and watery) this was really, *really* tasty!
Thanks for sharing.
My Heart Beets says
Glad you liked it! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂
Anita Mirchandani says
Hi! I am trying to make the onion masala.
When I came across your other recipes such as Veg Korma or Chicken Korma, I noticed there is an onion tomato mixture portion. Can the onion masala mixture be used for this? I know that the mixture does not contain the serrano pepper.
I was about to make a whole bunch of masala but I think I’ll wait 🙂
My Heart Beets says
Anita, you can use onion masala in any recipe calling for onions, tomatoes, ginger and garlic 🙂 I have several recipes that call for onion masala on the blog but not all of them do – the idea is to cook the masala, make recipes that call for it and then gain the confidence to cook any recipe whether mine or someone else’s using the masala. Hope that helps!!
Michelle McIntosh says
We just attempted to make this twice and the Instapot said BURN both times.
The second time we added extra water and stirred well- any tips?
My Heart Beets says
Hi Michelle, are you using a 6 quart instant pot? That’s what I use to test all of my blog recipes. If you are using a larger IP, it could be that you need more liquid due to more surface area. If you can let me know more details!
Sina says
Hi Ashley. I have my frozen masala ready to go ( in cubes as you suggested) . I have potatoes and cauliflower on hand. Can I sub cauliflower for eggplant and should I add a bit more masala if I use cauliflower? Thanks! Sina
Lady E says
I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but i just wanted to say thanks for sharing it. This is my absolute favorite Indian dish. From the first time I tried it in a restaurant, I was in love. I even had this served at my wedding because I love it so much, so I can’t wait to try it! I’ve made other versions of this recipe, but I love how easy yours seems!
My Heart Beets says
That’s awesome! Well now I can’t wait to hear what you think of it 🙂
emma says
Hi Ashley, love your site! Just found it today and the recipes look amazing. Can you tell me if you can freeze this dish? Thanks!
My Heart Beets says
Hi Emma, I’m so glad you found my site! I can’t wait to hear what you think of the recipes! I haven’t tried freezing this particular dish but I don’t see why not – it should be just fine 🙂
Cindy Tracy says
This recipe was fantastic!!! I did not use the serrano chile and in making the onion masala, I used hot paprika instead of cayenne pepper, but we loved it!
My Heart Beets says
Cindy, I’m so happy to hear that! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂
Milah Sutton says
So easy hard to believe it’s that delicious!
My Heart Beets says
Milah, thanks so much for letting me know how it turned out for you! 🙂
Rochelle says
I made the onion masala today and want to make this dish tomorrow. What do you normally serve with it? Rice, naan?
My Heart Beets says
Rochelle, you can serve it with either one 🙂 You can also make a legume dish and a side of raita (spiced yogurt) to go with it for a more complete vegetarian meal. Hope that helps!
JC says
Can you use cumin ground?
Where can you find onion masala?
My Heart Beets says
Here’s the recipe to make onion masala: https://myheartbeets.com/indian-onion-masala/ 🙂
Amy says
Could you do this recipe with sweet potatoes?
My Heart Beets says
Amy, yes you can! Someone in my Instant Pot for Indian Food facebook group actually did that and it worked well 🙂 Let me know what you think!
Ed Hawco says
OMG, this was so good. I had my doubts, given how simple it is, and with only four minutes under pressure. But wow, it totally worked!
I confess I added more onion masala (but I also had a pretty big eggplant) and a bit more water (about half a cup). I also stirred in a teaspoon or two of ghee at the end, because when I see this in a restaurant it’s usually a bit oily (but in a yummy way). Thanks so much for this. This, and the whole onion masala thing, have been game-changers!
My Heart Beets says
Thank you, Ed!! I’m so glad you made it – even with the doubts lol! Happy to hear you are liking the onion masala series 🙂
Anu says
Ashley, can you let me know how to prepare this recipe without onion masala, because i dont have onion masala prepared and am planning to cook this recipe now.
My Heart Beets says
Hi Anu, you can just sauté onion until brown then add ginger, garlic and tomatoes and cook the tomatoes a bit then proceed with the recipe. Hope that helps!
Maneesha says
Great recipe, Ashley! I made this, and it was delicious! I usually make eggplant Gujarati style, using mustard seeds, but using the cumen was such a great change! Very easy and absolutely delicious recipe!
My Heart Beets says
Thank you, Maneesha!! I’m so glad you liked it! 🙂
Michelle says
Hi Ashley. What size cubes do we cut the eggplant into?
Thanks!
My Heart Beets says
Michelle, about 1-2 inches – the eggplant will get really soft and won’t keep its shape after being cooked (unless you leave the pieces really large).
Tony N says
Peel the eggplant? Doesn’t look like it from the pics.
My Heart Beets says
Tony, no need to peel it – you can if you want to though! Let me know what you think if you try this 🙂