Baingan Bartha or Baingan ka Bhurta (Urdu: بینگن کا بھرتہ ) is a vegetarian dish from Indian and Pakistani cuisine. It is a Bhurta (minced vegetables) made from eggplant (Baigan), which is grilled over charcoal or direct fire to impart a smoky flavour to the flesh of the eggplant and then cooked with spices and vegetables.
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It is popular in Punjab, Maharashtra, Bihar, Orissa, and West Bengal. The dish has many names, depending on the local language (Hindi: baingan ka bharta, Gujarati: Odo, Bengali: বেগুন ভর্তা begun bhôrta, Marathi: wangyacha bharit). In the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the Tamils prepare a similar dish called kathrikai thayir kothsu, in which the eggplant is cooked and mashed and sautéed with mustard, red chilis, and sesame oil, after which curd is added to the mixture and dressed with coriander leaves.
It involves smoked eggplant, mashed with fresh cilantro (coriander leaves), chili pepper, onion and mustard oil.[1] It is often eaten with an Indian flatbread (specifically roti or paratha), and is also served with rice, and/or raita (a yoghurt salad). Baingan Bartha is also eaten across Pakistan, as well as in Bangladesh. In Afghanistan a traditional eggplant salad is called bonjan salad. It is usually eaten at room temperature (or cold) along with main dishes.
This dish is served with a variety of breads. There is similar dish called 'Baingan ka Raita' (Urdu: بینگن کا رائتہ ).
In protest cooking feat against BT Brinjal, volunteers from Greenpeace, and Delhi's hotel Le Méridien, cooked 342 kg of organic brinjal bharta (Baigan ka Bharta) at Dilli Haat, New Delhi on September 06, 2011, making it a world record. Some of it was also dispatched to Prime Minister’s house with a letter of protest.[2][3]