I can eat this vegan Indian eggplant curry recipe when it’s cold AND hot outside. While Indian food has the reputation of being challenging to cook, it’s all about having the necessary spices on hand! I have always found cooking with spices a very intuitive process, which lends itself really well to Indian cooking. Having a Stainless Steel Spice Set is really convenient when you’re cooking Indian food! The essential spices I use are: Hungarian Paprika, Smoked Spanish Paprika, Garam Masala, Turmeric, Cumin, and salt.
I would use less spice if you don’t eat spicy food. I usually add more spice than what the recipe calls for.
While North Indian cooking is known to use yogurt to thicken their sauces, I am not a fan of yogurt, so I wanted to do a vegan version of a thick curry sauce and used Coconut milk instead, which gives this Indian vegan eggplant curry recipe a really nice smooth consistency while also making it dairy-free!
If you try one of my recipes, I would love if you could tag it on Instagram or FB @chivegfood!
Vegan Indian Eggplant Curry Recipe
Ingredients
Mains
- 1 large eggplant (cubed)
- 1/2 a golden onion (diced)
- 1/4 c of olive oil
- 1/4 c of grapeseed oil
- 2 cups of basmati rice
- 1/3-1/2 cup of water
- 2/3 large can of pureed tomatoes
- 2/3 can of coconut milk
- 1 can of kidney beans
- 1 Serrano or chili pepper (optional, diced (keep the seeds) for spice)
Spices
- 1 tsp of sea salt
- 1 tsp of pepper
- 1 tsp of chili powder
- 1 tsp of turmeric
- 1 tsp of red pepper
- 1 tsp of smoked paprika
- 1 tsp of cumin
- 1 tsp of coriander
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 3 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 tbsp ginger (minced)
- 2 handfuls of fresh cilantro (loosely chopped)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Chop the eggplant horizontally into cubes
- Put the eggplant on the baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and add half of the amount of salt/pepper.
- Bake for 25 minutes, turn halfway through, and bake until golden brown.
- In a large over medium high heat. Add onions, stir for one minute, and then lower the heat to medium-low/low for about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally until the onions are golden brown. Then add the optional serrano pepper and sauté for 2 more minutes.
- Stir in all of the spices: chili powder, turmeric, red pepper, smoked paprika, cumin, coriander, garam masala and cook until fragrant, which is about 1 minute.
- Then stir in the garlic and ginger for about 2 more minutes.
- Stir in everything together and bring to a rolling simmer, lower the heat, simmer, and cover for about 25 minutes for the sauce/flavors to blend and for the sauce to thicken.
- Drizzle the cilantro on top and serve with basmati rice!
Notes


Hungry for more eggplant recipes? Check them out here!
Made this last night and it was really good! I love the spices!
This was super tasty!
I do not know if it’s just me or if everybody else experiencing problems with your
site. It looks like some of the written text in your content are running off the screen. Can someone else please provide feedback and let me know if
this is happening to them as well? This may be a issue
with my internet browser because I’ve had this happen previously.
Kudos
Thanks for letting me know! I haven’t heard this from others, but I will look into it!
Awesome article.
Thank you!
So good! My four year old helped me make this and she loved it. Even got a second helping! We added roasted sweet potatoes instead of kidney beans and garnished with cashews and cilantro. Adding this to our recipe book!
Hi Nora,
I am so happy you all enjoyed it! I love the additions you made as well!