Eggplan Walnut

This salad goes well with everything: grilled poultry, meat, Khachapuri (Cheese bread), and Mchadi (corn bread). You could also eat Nigvziani Badrijani (Nigvziani Badrijani in Georgian) separately.

Grind 1 teacup of walnut. Add 1 teaspoon of ground coriander seed, 1 teaspoon of ground marigold, 1 teaspoon of dried fenugreek, pinch of cayenne and salt with taste. Peel and mince 1 medium sized onion. Peel and crush 2 large garlic cloves. Mix everything together with 1 tablespoon of vinegar and finally add Ѕ cup of chopped mixed fresh herbs (cilantro, celery leaf, parsley and dill). The paste has to be approximately as thick as a peanut butter. To make it thinner carefully use lukewarm water. Grease the paste on one side of each piece of aubergine and fold it in half. Serve on the plate and for better flavour scatter pomegranate above.

Take about 1 kg eggplant, slice it lengthwise, sprinkle with salt, and leave to drain on paper towel for at least 30 minutes. It is wise to salt the eggplant to ensure that it is not bitter. Otherwise the aromatic taste of the spices and herbs will be lost. Fry the sliced eggplant pieces until they get golden brown. Cool the aubergine to room temperature. Use the cooling time to make the paste.

So here it goes…

It is not clear from which part of Georgia Nigvziani Badrijani originally came, as there are several regional variations. This time I’ll describe how to make the most popular, country version. Generally speaking country version of the dish means that it is herbed: thus, Khinkali with herbs would be called country Khinkali. The same is true for Nigvziani Badrijani, too.

Although Georgian cuisine is mostly based on various meat dishes, it also offers different kinds of salads made with vegetables. Because we like to use walnut a lot in every meal we make, today we’d like to feature a salad with walnuts.