Baingan Methi Subzi -- or eggplant with fenugreek -- is a fiesty Indian side dish of eggplant cooked with mustard seed, curry leaves, chickpea flour and mango powder. Eat with rice and dal, or with roti.

If you read this blog, you know I love eggplant. And if you eat my Baingan Methi Subzi you will too.

Baingan-- which you might call eggplant or aubergine or brinjal depending on where in the world you are -- is easily one of the most versatile vegetables around. This rotund wonder pirouettes across regional and international cuisines without missing a beat. Whether you are baking it into an Eggplant Parmesan, mashing it up into Baba Ghanouj, layering it on a pizza, or stuffing it with coconuts and spices for Bharli Vangi, you really cannot go wrong.

Yes, there are some weird people out there who don't like eggplant-- okay, there are many. But that's probably because they once tasted undercooked eggplant and decided it was evil. And it's true, eggplant not cooked right can be rubbery, tough, and bitter. But cooked right it is creamy, velvety, and sweet. The Jekyll and Hyde of veggies, you could say.

The eggplants used for this recipe are usually deep-fried. Deep-frying eggplants is a technique lots of Indian cooks use because the boiling oil transforms the eggplant to a smooth, melt-in-the-mouth texture. But eggplant is a sponge that soaks up oil so it is not the healthiest of techniques. Then I thought I'd just do what I usually do when a recipe calls for frying eggplants: broil them. The results are just as good minus all that fat.

I had some small, globe-like purple eggplants in my refrigerator but you could make this recipe with any kind of eggplant, really. The eggplant and methi, although both bitter veggies, pair up perfectly together in this dish and, with the spices, create an amazing flavor. Sop up this subzi with a soft chapati, or eat it as a side with rice and Tomato Dal. Again, you can't go wrong.