Borani Banjan

This post is almost exactly as written back in June 2020, which explains why the recipe is written and priced out, something I've stopped doing in the interests of time these days...

My initial plan for the Afghanistan section of the AtWCC was just the three dishes we previously posted about - aushe burida, kidney bean curry, and bolani. I was researching our next destination (Alabama, since I decided to mix the states in), but found I kept coming back to Afghanistan. I didn't feel done with it, especially since I didn't attempt even a simplified version of the national dish, kabuli pulao. (There will be some countries, I already know, where our style of cooking or dietary requirements aren't going to work with some of the national dishes, but that wasn't the case here.) As I kept reading, I kept finding more and more things I wanted to try to make, so I expanded our list for Afghanistan, planning out an entire week's worth of new recipes. Of course, the grocery store didn't cooperate and didn't have in stock very basic things like cilantro, so a lot of the recipes got postponed.

The one thing we were still able to make with what we got at the grocery store was borani banjan, a dish of Afghan eggplant with yogurt sauce. I modeled ours after the version I found on Honey & Dates, mostly because the eggplant there was baked and not fried. (We've already covered how I feel about frying.) The ingredients for our modified version were:

- 2 large eggplants ($10.25) *
- olive oil (probably at least 1/2 cup) ($1)
- 1 onion ($0.94)
- small bunch of fresh mint ($0.95)
- 28 oz can of diced tomatoes ($2.29)
- ground ginger ($0.10)
- ground turmeric ($0.10)
- salt and freshly ground black pepper ($0.05)
- garlic powder ($0.05)
- small spoonful of minced garlic ($0.10)
- about 1 cup of plain yogurt ($1.48)
- rice ($0.50)

* The eggplants should have only cost $5.11, but Fairway charged us for some organic Italian eggplants instead of the plain basic eggplants we got. We had mostly stayed at home before the day we went there, but decided to combine a grocery trip with some dentist appointments. Being in the store with their poor social distancing enforcement and lack of any visible ongoing sanitizing (compared to other stores that will do things like cleaning your cart - remember, this was June 2020) was the least safe we felt all day, and we just wanted to get out, plus the only place the prices were listed was on the screen behind the cashier and we were keeping our distance, so we didn't notice the massive overcharge until it was too late. They also charged us for the wrong onions, but that was far less egregious of an error. On top of having to scrap 70% of our shopping list/meal plan because the store selection had gone way downhill, this was very aggravating.

The total cost for dinner was approximately $17.81, almost entirely due to the ridiculous cost of those eggplants. It did not feel like great value for the money, since we know how much it should have cost. Thanks, Fairway.


The steps for making our modified version of the dish were:

1. Prep the eggplant. Wash and slice into rounds (not too thick but not paper thin either; the recipe said 1/4 inch but I didn't measure). Line baking sheets with aluminum foil and spray with canola oil spray. Lay eggplant rounds flat on the baking sheets and brush with olive oil so the tops and sides are coated. Bake for 30 min at 350 degrees and flip halfway through.

2. While the eggplant is baking (or in our case, since the eggplant didn't fit on two baking sheets, and I had to fill a third while the first two were already in the oven, leading to some delayed and scattered timing), start prep on the tomato sauce and the yogurt sauce by chopping the onion and the mint.

3. Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until softened. Add the diced tomatoes (with only a little of the juices), ginger, turmeric, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and minced garlic. (I didn't measure any of the spices, so maybe a tsp of ginger and turmeric, a few grinds of S&P, and a lot of garlic? Season to taste, of course.) Mix well and cook (occasionally stirring) until the sauce has thickened. Add about 1/3 of the chopped mint, cook for another minute, and then remove from heat.


4. Add yogurt to a bowl with the remaining 2/3 of the chopped mint, a little salt, and a liberal amount of garlic powder. Mix well, and let sit until the rest of the components are finished.

[Side note on the yogurt sauce: This is basically the same yogurt sauce I've now made three times for our exploration of Afghan food, but we love it. This time, we used plain yogurt instead of plain Greek yogurt because it was what we had, but we prefer it with the Greek yogurt. The first time we made it with some fresh garlic added was, of course, the best. Many of the recipes talk about using dried mint, but we've used fresh because we haven't found any dried mint yet. One day, we'll find out which one we like better, because I doubt this will be the last time we make this yogurt sauce.]

[Also, a prep note: If the eggplant is finished baking (so that they're soft enough to eat) but nothing else is done (which was, of course, our situation), put the eggplant on a plate under aluminum foil to keep it warm and let it soften some more.]

5. Layer the dish with the eggplant on the bottom, the tomato sauce in the middle, and the yogurt sauce on top. Serve with rice on the side.


I don't actually remember if we ever tried this at the local Afghan restaurant in our old neighborhood, so I can't really compare, but overall it turned out okay. The tomato sauce and yogurt sauce were really tasty, and they worked well together, but the weakest part of the dish was the eggplant. I haven't made much eggplant before (I actually didn't remember ever using the big eggplants before, only Japanese eggplant or baby eggplants, but reading old posts, I was wrong about that, having made it very differently for escalivada), and I'm not sure if I baked them for too little time, too much time, or with too little oil, or what, but they were just not as soft and juicy as I would have liked them to be. I think if the eggplant texture had come out to what I envisioned in my head, that combined with the tomato sauce and yogurt sauce would have been delicious. We'll definitely keep this dish in mind if we ever see good (and affordable) eggplant at the store, and it'll give me another chance to get it right!