Don't get alarmed by the name.. give me a chance to explain.
When I was working in Bangalore, every Friday, I and my friend had to work on this boring task of allocating resources to the projects. I am not going to go into a detailed explanation of the task but believe me when I say that for those few months, this was one hell of a friday job that made us go crazy at times.
This friend of mine loves pizza and almost every Friday, it was our lunch. There were two main reason for that - first, it's easy to eat pizza and work at the same time and second, it's Pizza! And since Arvind also loves pizza, we would eat it for dinner as well.
So, at times I ate pizza back to back to keep my friend and my husband (who was then my BF) happy 🙂
Well, that definitely didn't inspire me to make this Pizza, that's actually how I lost interest in Pizza!
Few weeks back, Arvind took me to this Indian Pizza restaurant near our house. He kept telling me I will enjoy the pizza variety out there as it's different and has very unique toppings. I was thinking how unique can it be.. right? Turns out, it was very interesting. It had every different kind of toppings from Indian cuisine, like 'Matar Paneer', 'Kachodi' and 'Bhel Puri' !
We ate a 'Palak Paneer Pizza' and a 'Baigan Bharta Pizza'. It had the perfect crust, flavorful topping and was super delicious. I would have never ever thought of baigan bharta on pizza.
In the beginning of the month, when Kulsum announced 'Yeast Dough' as Monthly Mingle theme, I was doubtful if any entry would go from my side. Yeast and I are just getting to know each other, still not in the good friend zone. For me, it's little spooky to knead the dough knowing the yeast is alive and in contact with your hand.
After some serious thought and few attempts, I must say yeast is fun to work with. They need some care and once you give that, they can rise the dough pretty high and nice. These little fellows need a lot of pampering and perfect temperature or they can die!
Kneading the soft dough was in-fact quite therapeutic and finally, I am getting to understand why people love baking breads at home.
I was not very sure how the pizza would turn out! Never really baked pizza at home and here I was trying out something with roasted eggplant as a topping. While clicking the pictures, I kept telling to myself 'we will see if it worthy enough to share' . Well, as it turned out, we were pretty happy with the taste. It was not as good as the one we ate in the restaurant but pretty good for first time.
I am not sure if it's worthy enough or not, but I had told my friends I will try to get out of the yeast phobia and I sure did. That's a pretty good reason for me to share this with you and Kulsum for the Monthy Mingle 🙂
Baigan Bharta (Roasted Mashed Eggplant) Pizza
Ingredients
For the pizza dough
- 1 ½ teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1 cup warm water (not hot!)
- 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tbs sugar
For the topping
- 1 big eggplant
- 2 to matoes (roughly chopped)
- 1 small onion (finely chopped)
- 1 small onion (sliced in round shape)
- 2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
- 2 jalapenos (sliced in round shape)
- 1 tbs chilly flakes
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 cup cilantro (chopped for garnish)
- sharp cheddar cheese (I used just a little bit of grated cheese on top)
- salt
- pepper
- oil
Instructions
- Mix yeast with the warm water in a small bowl. Cover it and let it stand until it looks creamy. This should take about 7 minutes.
- In another large bowl, combine flour, olive oil, salt and sugar.
- Then, add the yeast mixture and mix it properly. Knead it for few minutes until its smooth and soft.
- Take a glass bowl and grease it with some oil. Keep the dough in the bowl and brush some oil on top of the dough.
- Cover it, keep it in a warm area and let it rise until it doubles in volume. This should take about an hour.
- While the dough is rising, you can start working on the toppings.
- Roasting the eggplant can be done either in the oven, stove top or grill. I used stove top.
- Pat dry the eggplant and brush some oil on it. Roast it until it soft and the skin starts to peel apart.
- Let it cool before you start mashing it. After it cools down, peel the skin off the eggplant and put in a bowl.
- Then, heat some oil in a pan and saute garlic and chopped onions.
- Season with some salt and pepper, and once it's translucent, add the tomatoes and continue cooking for about 2 minutes.
- Take it out from the pan and put in the mixing bowl with the roasted eggplant.
- Add cumin powder, chilly flakes and mash it until it's smooth.
- Place dough onto a well floured surface and roll out into a pizza crust shape. (Don't worry about the shape much, just make sure it's evenly rolled out)
- In a baking pan, arrange the parchment paper and place the rolled pizza crust on it.
- Top with with the mashed eggplant mix and spread the mix evenly.
- Arrange the sliced onions and jalapeno over the eggplant mix.
- Grate some cheese on top and drizzle some oil.
- Bake it at 450 F for about 15 minutes or until it's slight brown and cooked through.
- Garnish with cilantro and serve!
Nutrition
KLP
I made this pizza over the weekend. First - the sauce was amazingly good. However, I question slicing up jalapeno and putting it on the pizza. We tried - WOW was it hot. And we like heat. I would up the red pepper flakes if you want more heat instead. The other modification we made was to use goat cheese instead of cheddar. Will definitely make again. We are using the leftover sauce to make calzones.
Shumaila
OMG! Absolutely love the pictures!!! Bharta is one of my husband's favorite dishes, pizza is one of mine. This recipe is what I call a perfect marriage! Great work Kankana! Love it!!!
Vijitha
Superb idea! What an idea sir ji??? lolz
Eating Deliciously
Love this recipe! I am always on the lookout for new pizza ideas and this fit the bill perfectly!
Tanvi @ The Hathi Cooks
I LOVE the photo of the steaming eggplant! I also love baigan bharta and feel like it would be perfect on a pizza! I'm definitely going to borrow this idea, I love it!
Ananda Rajashekar
oh smoke from egg plant is sexy!! everything looks wonderful, indian topped pizza i SHOULD try!
Yesim
when i first saw the photo of food, i thought it s a lahmacun which s a traditional food in Turkey , it s same brean on it ground mince, tomato onion and some spices.. i loved your idea as well.. 🙂
briarrose
An unusual pizza....I like it!
[email protected]
I love baigan bartha (a childhood favourite) and to make it in pizza form sounds that much more delicious! Great idea!
Sandi G
You may it look so easy, very creative!
nancy at good food matters
Wow! This one really resonates for our eggplant-loving household. terrific variation for pizza.
and, I love that smoking charred 'plant photo---well done!
Ramya
I am sooooo loving it!! in fact i am head over heals over this Indian flavored pizza:-)
Tina (PinayInTexas)
Great job on that homemade pizza, Kankana! I love eggplant and I'm sure I gonna love it on pizza!
Kitchen Belleicious
Opps I hit submit on mistake. Okay lets try this again. Eggplant Pizza! GENIUS! I love eggplant and roasting it then putting it on a perfectly crispy and slightly sweet pizza dough is just fantastic
Charles
What a wonderful variation on regular pizza which all seems to be about meat, meat, meat these days. This looks absolutely delicious and my wife would adore it, I know! There used to be a restaurant near me which served amazing pizzas... tomato sauce, thinly sliced eggplant and sprinkled parmesan. So simple but so delicious!
liren
I love eggplants and it absolutely makes sense on a pizza. This looks so delicious!
lisaiscooking
This sounds like a great pizza topping! And, fresh eggplant are so plentiful right now, this is perfect timing.
[email protected]
ooooh.. never thought of putting some bharta on the pizza.. that must have tasted fun! and probably funner to eat it.. than the regular roti subzi style!
love the clicks.. esp the smoking eggplant!
Ameena
I wish I had the patience and skill to make this because it looks delicious. But the truth is that I will have to admire it from afar thanks to my lack of experience!
Colleen
Ooooooooh what is NOT to like about an Indian pizza???? I love it!! Will definitely have to try it for myself. Love your photos especially the one of the roasted eggplant with the steam rising. I would love to be able to take a photo like that!! I get the black background is essential, as would be taking the photo immediately the eggplant is cooked but what setting did you use on your camera pretty please??? Thanks for sharing and well done on your yeast post. Its awesome xx