Georgian Badridschani – Stuffed eggplants with walnut paste

After Pragya and I had cooked a lot of Indian delicacies from her home country in the last weeks, we wanted to venture into another part of the world. Pragya was in Georgia a few years ago and is still raving about it. I myself have had the region around Georgia and Armenia on my wish list for quite some time and so we decided to use some recipes from Georgia.

Besides the Georgian Skhmeruli, we prepared these stuffed eggplants for a small family reunion. In Georgia, they are called „Badridschani Nigvzit“ and are served there as a starter.

Stuffed eggplants with walnut cream

The nice thing about the Badridschani is that you can experiment a little with the spices while preparing them. Depending on whether you use more cumin, for example, the stronger the well-known more oriental taste. So you can always change your stuffed eggplants variably. So you can’t do much wrong 😉

Ingredients for Georgian Badridschani

Preparation of the Badridschani

1. First cut the eggplants lengthwise into slices about 5-7mm thick. Sprinkle salt on both sides and put the slices aside on kitchen paper for about 10 minutes. The salt has the effect of removing water from the eggplants.

Salt and drain the eggplants

2. In the meantime, remove the seeds from the pomegranate. For beginners I recommend doing this in a water bath, otherwise, the mess in the kitchen can get big. Cut the pomegranate in a cross shape and break it open. Now you can carefully remove the red seeds by hand.

3. Now heat some oil in a pan. Squeeze the eggplant slices a little more with the help of some kitchen paper and fry them until golden brown on both sides. Then put the eggplants aside to cool down.

Fry the eggplants until golden brown

4. Now it’s time for the filling: Peel and chop the garlic and half the onion, pluck 3 stalks of coriander and put everything together with the walnuts, the spices, some olive oil and the vinegar in a blender or blender bowl.

5. Puree the ingredients to a smooth cream. If necessary, you can add some water or even some olive oil. As mentioned in the beginning, you can hardly do anything wrong with the preparation of the cream and you can experiment with the spices.

Puree the ingredients for the walnut paste

Georgian walnut cream

6. Now spread about one tablespoon of the walnut cream on the thick end of each eggplant slice, squeeze in a few pomegranate seeds and roll everything up. 

7. Arrange the Badridschani together with the rest of the coriander and some pomegranate seeds. Bon appetit ^^

Spread the eggplant with the walnut cream

Eggplants filled with walnut cream

Georgian Badridschani – My Conclusion

What a delicious and simple finger food. My family was also more than excited about the stuffed eggplants, so Pragya and I made another plate of Badridschani the very next day.

The best thing really is that you can hardly do anything wrong with the preparation and therefore be very creative. So these stuffed eggplants from Georgia are definitely something for a German barbecue.

What do you think about the Badridschani? Do you know any other delicious recipes from Georgia? I am happy about your comments.

More suitable dishes and recipes:

• Sheikh al-Mashi – The dish of the kings
• Paprika Töltött – Stuffed peppers from Hungary
• Greek Tzatziki – Quickly made, super delicious