Gutti Vankaya | South Indian Stuffed Eggplant Curry

by Jyo

My family has an obsession with Eggplants.

How obsessed? My family sees eggplants in stores, and starts displaying the enthusiasm of a K-Pop Stan & Swiftie combined. (K-pop Stan = Korean Pop fans; Swiftie = Taylor Swift fans respectively, for those not conversant with the terms. I have teenage nieces who educate me (with heavy eye-rolls) on my internet lingo.)

My relatives revel in (and are honestly pretty awesomely skilled) in all the variants they can make with eggplant. My family even has a quote over the greatness of eggplants. No folks, really, I’m not joking.

“There is no God greater than Shiva and no vegetable greater than eggplants”.

Not making this up. Ask my Giri Babayee, and he will wow you with this.

So YEAH. When you confer divine status to a vegetable, well, THAT’S when you know you’ve got a Grade-A certified obsession with eggplant. 🙂 And I LOVE my family for it. Food love runs deep in our familia.

Once you try this dish, Gutti Vankaya, the obsession makes complete sense. There’s a ton of eggplant dishes from Andhra, in South-eastern India – smoked eggplant chutney, deep-fried eggplant, eggplant in cilantro-chili sauce, eggplant in peanut/sesame sauce, eggplant fried rice & stew. But Gutti Vankaya, is an absolute classic: Eggplant stuffed with chickpea flour & spices. It’s crispy on the outside with toasted chickpea flour, gooey & mushy on the inside, bursting with cumin, coriander & curried eggplant goodness. There’s several variations – with roasted peanuts & coconuts; baked vs. fried; some like a gravy curry. My version pulls the most trustworthy source I have on this recipe: my Mom. Or as I call her, Amma.


So here is my Mom’s quick and easy, but insanely savory & flavor imploding Gutti Vankaya! If you try this recipe, tag your creations with #findmymojyo on Instagram to be featured on our stories. I’d love to see your pictures and what you come up with, eggplant, ahem the greatest vegetable ever!

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