Stuffed Brinjal Fry (Gutti Vankaya Fry)
Updated: August 2, 2022, By Swasthi
Stuffed Brinjal Fry is a delicious stir fried dish of stuffed eggplants. Also known as Gutti Vankaya Fry, these spicy, slightly tangy and nutty tasting brinjals are a popular dish from Andhra Cuisine. They go great with plain rice and ghee, with a side of Rasam or Sambar or just with Curd Rice. Roasted peanuts, sesame seeds, coconut and stir fried onions are ground and stuffed in the young eggplants and cooked on a low flame until tender.
These stir fried and slow cooked eggplants taste not only delicious but also melt in your mouth. Baby eggplants or tender eggplants that are farm fresh are the key to this dish. Else you will end up with undercooked, seedy and hard brinjals that won’t be edible.
When I made this to show you all the recipe, I used 8 medium sized brinjals weighing about 400 grams. I am sharing these details so you know how small these brinjals were.
The recipe also makes the stuffing just enough for 8 eggplants. Any excess left over stuffing can be just added to the pan towards the end and sautéed for 2 to 3 mins.
If you are using more eggplants, simply increase the quantities of the stuffing ingredients.
Photo Guide
How to Make Stuffed Brinjal Fry
1. Dry roast ¼ cup peanuts on a low to medium flame until they begin to smell good.
2. Add ½ tsp cumin, 2 tbsp sesame seeds and ¼ cup chopped coconut and saute lightly without burning until the sesame seeds smell good. Transfer this to a plate to cool.
3. Add 1 ½ tsp oil to the hot pan. Fry ¾ cup sliced onion to golden.
4. Add 1 ½ tsp ginger garlic paste and fry until the raw smell goes off. You can also use 1 inch ginger and 2 to 3 garlic cloves. Saute them lightly without burning.
5. Switch off the stove. To the hot pan, add 1 to 1 ½ tsp red chili powder, 1 tsp coriander powder and salt as needed. You can also add half tsp garam masala or skip coriander powder and use only ¾ tsp garam masala if you like it.
6. Cool all the ingredients and add them to a blender. You can also add tamarind paste and very little jaggery. I prefer to use fresh lemon juice at the next step.
7. Blend it to a slightly coarse paste. If you have not used tamarind, add lemon juice and mix well. Taste this mixture and adjust the spice and salt levels.
8. Wash brinjals thoroughly. Keeping the stem intact, slit each of them partially. Keep them in water until used. Stuff each brinjal with the ground paste. Heat a pan with 1 tbsp oil, add curry leaves, hing and then the stuffed brinjals. Toss to coat them well with oil.
9. Cover and cook on a low flame. Flip or toss them to the sides that remain uncooked. If needed, you can sprinkle 1 to 2 tbsp water, if your brinjals are not tender.
10. When completely cooked, they will wilt off and the skin looks loose. Add coriander leaves.
Keep them covered until you serve. Serve with rice, ghee, sambar or simple rasam.
Recipe Card
Stuffed brinjal fry
For best results follow the step-by-step photos above the recipe card
Ingredients (US cup = 240ml )
- 400 grams brinjals or 8 to 10, / vankaya
- 2 onions medium sized , ( ¾ cup sliced)
- ¼ cup coconut
- ¼ cup peanuts
- 2 tbsp sesame seeds
- ½ tsp cumin / jeera
- 1 ½ tbsp oil
- 1 ½ tsp ginger garlic paste (or ginger & garlic chopped)
- 1 sprig curry leaves
- 1 to 1 ½ tsp red chilli powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder or ¾ tsp garam masala
- salt as needed
- lemon juice or tamarind pulp as needed
- coriander leaves few
Instructions
Preparation
- Dry roast peanuts until nicely done. Saute sesame, cumin and coconut in the same pan. cool them.
- Saute onions until golden in 1 tsp oil. Saute also ginger garlic until the raw smell goes off.
- Add chili powder, coriander or garam masala powder and salt. Cool all these and blend to a coarse paste. Add lemon juice or tamarind as desired and mix well. Taste it and adjust the salt and chili.
- Wash and slit brinjals by keeping them intact towards the stem.
- Stuff this mixture and set them aside.
Making gutti vankaya fry
- Heat a pan with 1 tbsp oil and add these brinjals along with curry leaves. Toss them well to coat with oil. Cover and cook until done. Occasionally toss them or flip them to cook evenly.
- When the eggplants are cooked completely, the skin wilts off. Sprinkle coriander leaves.
- Serve stuffed brinjal fry hot with rice and ghee.
NUTRITION INFO (estimation only)
© Swasthi’s Recipes
About Swasthi
I’m Swasthi Shreekanth, the recipe developer, food photographer & food writer behind Swasthi’s Recipes. My aim is to help you cook great Indian food with my time-tested recipes. After 2 decades of experience in practical Indian cooking I started this blog to help people cook better & more often at home. Whether you are a novice or an experienced cook I am sure Swasthi’s Recipes will assist you to enhance your cooking skills. More about me
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Comments
Excited to try this recipe today! I showed it to my mom and she said that this is exactly what she made so I’m looking forward to tasking ‘Amma’s’ home cooking.
One question – why do you leave the slitted eggplant in water? What is the reasoning behind it?
Hi Mahathi
Keeping them immersed in water prevents them from discoloring and turning bitter. Apart from that, they soak up some moisture and avoid burning while cooking. Hope you enjoy.
great recipe
Hi
When i look to make something new i always check out ur recipies coz im 100% sure theyll turn out best.
Your recipies r excellent
Thank you so much Sharon1
🙂
Hi swasthis
Tq for u
I always follow ur receipies
Really I love it bcoz u tells it in a simple matter wich are available at home it tastes really good
In prevoius I use to buy all spices powders but now I follow ur receipies
So that I am making it at home I am much tq full to u even my kids also happy with ur receipies
Hi Haritha,
You are welcome! Glad you like the recipes. Thank you for the comment. Hope your kids enjoy more recipes from here!
🙂
I’ve always wanted to post some comments but I somehow couldn’t find the comments section.
You know what? Well I’m a home maker father and I picked up cooking last year… since then, whenever I wanted to cook something, I’ll say this to my wife “Aagu Swathi akka ni adugutaa” (wait I’ll ask Swathi sister)… That dependent I am on your recipes and website.
God gifted you with an amazing talent of cooking and you are spreading that blessings via this website. Never I failed in getting good comments after cooking anything that I did following your instructions.
Lemme make this Gutti Vankai for the first time and let you know how it turned out.
Thank you so much for your time and patience.
God bless you.
Hello Ravi garu,
Thank you very much for the wishes! Very happy to know my recipes are so much useful. You are getting good compliments means you are a great cook. Being able to follow other’s cooking instructions & make good food is not something everyone can do. This means you are a smart learner. Hope you all enjoyed Gutti vankaya! Thanks much! My good wishes to all of you!
Hello Swathi gaaru…
I tried it today and it is super success 🙂
Thank you so much for the recipe..
You don’t know how happy I am for learning a new dish and executing it perfectly. Credit goes to you.
Hi Ravi garu,
You are most welcome. Glad it turned out good. Thank you so much!
Enjoyed the dish. Thanks for the recipe.
welcome Latha
Hi
The recipe seems super delicious. Is there a vedio to the recipe? If yes, please do share the link … Thanks
Hi Natalie,
No I don’t have a video for this. Thank you.
I tried to make this recipe but it became gravy only it didn’t came dry.
What to do to get it dry?
Hi Sadhana,
I hope you followed the recipe as it is & didn’t pour water. Mail me a picture of the curry.You can evaporate the gravy by cooking on a high flame to get the dry brinjals.
Tried this, came out really well. Thank you for the wonderful recipe
Welcome Shruti
Wonderful recepie, I like stuffed brinjal. While preparing it looked so tempting, couldn’t resist myself.
Thanks
Welcome Sneha
Thanks for trying
Simply superb…
Basically i am a brinjal fan… addition to that masala filling…. wow
Each bite gives excellent masala taste…
never taste like this before.
Tons of Thank you madam.
Welcome Sagar garu
Glad to know it turned out good. Thanks for sharing the outcome
Hi swasthi! How ru? Its been a very long time since i pinged here. Hope all good at ur end. Tried this fry today and its soooo tasty. Thank u 🙂
Welcome Madhavi
So glad to read your comment. I am fine. Thanks for asking. I always would think of writing to you since it was a long time i heard from you. Hope all is well at your end. Glad to know brinjal fry turned out good.
The masala filling is to die for! Super delicious 🙂
Glad to read your comment Maria. Thanks a lot. Have a wonderful weekend.