Borani is a Persian yogurt based dip. While the base of this dip is yogurt, the add on ingredients are usually cooked vegetables.
The most famous/popular Boranies are:
Borani e Laboo(beetroot)
Borani e Bademjan(eggplant)
Borani e Esfenaj(spinach)
The main ingredients of Borani-e Bademjan are yogurt and eggplant. The best way to cook the eggplant is on open flame or charcoal grill so you can get that awesome smoky flavor. But if you don’t have access to that, grilling them on the oven also works totally fine.
People depends on their taste might add few more ingredients to their Borani such as fresh mint and walnut. However, I personally like to keep it simple with minimum ingredients.
One of the ingredients that I definitely can't take out of my Borani is garlic. I really recommend you to use at least 1 clove of garlic with this amount of ingredients but if you are not a garlic person, you can take it out or depends on your taste you can add more. I suggest you to try the recipe before adding more garlic and keep that in mind it will taste more garlicy as it sits in the fridge.
Borani-e Bademjan can be served as a side dish and pairs beautifully with any kababs. You can also serve it as a dip with some chips, lavash or pita bread.
You can store the Borani in an airtight container in the fridge for 4-5 days. And guess what? The more it sits in the fridge, the flavors blend better together.
My recommendation for making Borani is to use full fat plain yogurt or greek yogurt. You can use drained yogurt also. We want to have a creamy texture so I wouldn't recommend using any thin yogurt.
Ingredients:
1 large eggplant or 2 chinees eggplant
1 cup plain full fat yogurt
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instruction:
-Preheat the oven to 400F.
-Place the eggplant on an oven tray with aluminum foil and poke all over the eggplant with fork.
-Grill the eggplant in the oven for 30-45 minutes depends on the size of your eggplant. Check it and it should be cooked all the way. -Take the tray out of the oven and let the eggplant come to the room temperature. -Take the peel off and chopped them finely. -Mince the garlic and mix it with chopped eggplant in a medium bowl.
-Add the yogurt, salt and pepper and mix everything together. -Cover the bowl and let it sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. (If you are in rush you can skip this step)
-Spread the Borani in a plate and garnish it with mint, fried garlic, olive oil or any other garnishes that you desire.
-Serve the Borani with chips or lavash bread, or as a side dish.
نوش جان
