“Vangi” in Maharashtra refers to Brinjal, Aubergine or Eggplants. While Maharashtrian cuisine is filled with delicacies made with this versatile sabzi or vegetable, the recipe in discussion today is particularly my favourite i.e. the Vangyache Kaap or the Pan Fried Crispy Eggplant Slices.

Vangyache Kaap is an effortless recipe with basic ingredients available in your kitchen shelf. It is the perfect side to your Varan Bhaat (dal chawal) or Khichdi combination. You don’t require an elaborate sabzi on the side with a kaap for company. You can call it an appetizer or vegetarian side, either ways, one cannot ever get enough of this delicious crispy eggplant dish.
If you are a crazy Eggplant lover like me, you must try this easy to prep and cook recipe soon. If you love main course options with Eggplant or Baingan, do try the Maharashtrian Vangi Batatyachi Bhaji OR the North Indian favourite, Baingan Bharta. Both bring out the best flavours of Aubergine or Baingan extremely well and can be served as a side to flatbreads like rotis, parathas, bhakri and/or the staple dal rice combo.
Kaap is similar to fritters, except there is no deep frying involved here. It is pan fried with oil as required to cook the Eggplant discs slowly, until they are crisp and golden brown. Looks wise, it is very similar to Begun Bhaja from the Bengali cuisine, yet different in many ways.

The prep work for the kaap may not be very time consuming but the actual cooking process does take a bit of time, especially if you prefer to wait patiently and allow the aubergine to cook in less oil.
Few tips to Cook Vangyache Kaap or Crispy Eggplants
- Use an Eggplant / Brinjal / Vangi / Aubergine variety that has less seeds and is fleshy. It is best to use the large fat / thick variety of aubergine or eggplant especially used for Baingan Bharta. It can be easily cut into slices and has more flesh, less seeds with a thick skin to hold the kaap in place while cooking.
- While soaking the eggplants in water after slicing, ensure salt is added to the water.
- Always ensure the flame is low while cooking kaap. It takes a while to get the golden texture on top and it requires patience especially if you add less oil and prefer to pan fry like me.
- Use oil that has neutral flavour to bring out the best flavours of eggplants and spices used.
- Do not be in a hurry to turn over the kaap while cooking. It will break the slices. Lift with tongs and gently turn over to cook the other side. Pour few drops of oil on the sides at regular intervals to ensure cooking and prevent burning and charring of the eggplants.

Sharing this recipe for the A to Z challenge this month wherein we choose to cook with key ingredients Alphabetically. This month it was time for Alphabet ‘E’ and I chose my key ingredient ‘Eggplant’ to make this uber delicious Maharashtrian Vangyache Kaap or Pan Fried Crispy Eggplant
The A to Z Challenge was initiated by Jolly Makkar and this is my 5th post for the theme. Recipes in the challenge you might be interested and can try out at home are Roasted Almond and Choco chip icecream, Broccoli Corn balls , Khamang Kakdi , Sugar Free Dates Rose Pista Ladoos.

Let us now look at the easy recipe of Vangyache Kaap and make some over the weekend for the entire family.
Recipe for Vangyache Kaap / Pan Fried Crispy Eggplant
Prep Time 10 mins
Cook time 40 mins for 15 slices
Serves 4 nos.
Ingredients
- 1 Medium Size Brinjal or 15 slices
- Any neutral Oil as required to cook the aubergines
- Salt to taste
- Water required to soak the eggplants
Ingredients for spice mix and coating the eggplants
- 4 tsps of Red chilli powder or Lal Mirch
- 2 tsps of Turmeric powder or Haldi
- 1 tsp of Garam Masala powder
- 1/2 tsp of Hing or Asafoetida
- 4 tblsp of rice flour
- 4 tbslp of roasted rava or sooji
- 5 tbslp of besan or gram flour
- 1 tsp of salt
Method
(1) Slice the Eggplants or Baingan and soak them in salted water until the prep work for the spice mix is done.

(2) In a large plate, mix together red chilli powder, hing, turmeric powder, salt and garam masala powder.

(3) In another large plate, mix together besan or gram flour, rice flour and rava or sooji and keep aside.


(4) Drain the water from the eggplants, pat the dry with a kitchen towel and remove excess moisture if any.
(5) In the meanwhile, heat a non stick large pan and add oil.
(6) Now take a slice of eggplant, rub both sides of the eggplant with the spice mix as explained in (2) above. Refer to pic below

(7) Now pat the brinjal on both sides with the coating of besan, gram flour and rice flour as explained in (3) above. Pat excess flour, if any.

(8) Place them carefully on the hot non stick pan, add few drops of oil on the sides and allow it to cook over low flame.

(9) Repeat the process with the rest of the Eggplants.

(10) Keep turning over the aubergines and pouring few drops of oil at intervals to avoid burning.
(11) Serve piping hot with dal rice or khichdi and dahi.
Recipe Notes –
- For Gluten Free Version of this Recipe – Skip the hing or asafoetida and the semolina or roasted rava coating.
- Add the spice mixes based on your taste and preferences. Some prefer it more spicy whereas others would prefer less heat.
- I prefer adding all the 3 – besan, rice flour and semolina for the coating. Each lends a unique touch to the recipe. Rice Flour provides the crispiness, semolina the crunch and besan controls the excess moisture and prevents the aubergines from getting soggy while cooking.
If you try this at home, please give me a shout out / Tag Me on any of my social media handles.
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Vidya Narayan
Love this recipe and it looks so good.We make a similar version without the addition of flours. Thanks for sharing!
Hey Nisha, wishing you belated Makar Sankranti. Thank you for stopping by and glad you loved the recipe. The pan fried version (yours) minus flours sounds interesting.
Wish you the same dear and hope you enjoyed!
I love rava-fried vegetables. A friend of mine, from Dharwad, taught me how to make these, and I adore them. Lovely share for the theme! 🙂
That’s nice to know Priya. Thanks and Cheers!
Super like, i just love these sort of pan fried vegetables, after potatoes, i just love to make this dish with eggplants. Obviously my mouth is watering here. Wish i get that plate rite now.
Thank you so much Priya and I really wish I could treat you some day.
These look absolutely divine..perfect combo with dal chawal I love fried brinjals more than the curry made with them.
I am a big brinjal fan and love it in any form. Glad you liked it and yes, dal chawal ke saath this is ultimate.
Now I know why my eggplant never turns crispy, it is missig the second layer of dusting. This is a super exciting recipe for us to try. So far we made only the lebanese style of roasted eggplants, this flavour will be more in favour of.
Seema I adore eggplants while my husband doesn’t that much but he thoroughly enjoyed this particular one. Hope your family likes it. Thank you!
Good one…I think it’s perfect to my rasam rice👍
That sounds delicious.
Ah this reminded me of what umma would do for her lunch. Any leftover marinade she would have, she would toss up either eggplants or yam and cook them on low flame in little oil till done. It used to taste amazing… This is such an easy side dish like you mentioned for daal chaawal, super yum!
I agree, It is a good change from the usual sabzi for lunch. Thanks Rafee
That’s a awesome crispy vangyache kaap. Have not tried it but would love to try the recipe out.
You would love it I am sure. Thank you so much.
Love this recipe! Can’t wait to try it out!
Thanks Shalini.
I am really tempted to try this recipe. Love the spices and my husband would finish off a whole eggplant by himself. the best part is it is pan fried. I am bookmarking this to try soon!
Thanks Sandhya. Your husband sounds like a huge eggplant fan, just like me.
This pan fried eggplant looks absolutely delish. I guess the semolina gives nice crisp texture to the outer layer, love such simple yet flavourful dish. I particularly like that it is not deep fried. I will have to try this lovely recipe sometime.
Absolutely true about the semolina crispy texture Geetha. I am sure you would love it. Thanks
I love this as a side with my Dal rice as I need some bhaji to go along and this one is one amongst them, easy and quick to make and yet so tasty. Your pics are tempting and reminding me that I have not made this since long. Yum.
Thank you Renu, hope you enjoy making them.
I love kaap of any kind and when made with baingan (one of my favourite veggies) how can I resist?.
Kaap kinda works best as a cross between papad and vegetable for me. haha.
I would love having vangyache kaap with waran bhaat for my lunch anyday. Your preparation sounds flavorful Vidya. I use only suji and rice flour. Will try adding gram flour next time.
Thanks Poonam.
I love eggplants. And this pan fried eggplant slices looks superbly delicious. My mom used to prepared it in a same way like yours but ya she never added rice flour. I would love to eat it as a baingan fritters, sprinkle some chaat masala from top, ahh yumm. Perfect tea time snack. Amazing share dear Vidya .
Thanks Jolly, glad you liked it
Yumm!!! Who would have thought that such a not-so-popular eggplant could have so many variations and in our house, this one is the most preferred Vidya, especially by my hubby! 🙂 Looks amazing and tasty! We love to enjoy it with dalithoy and rice!
Oh it would be perfect with Dalithoy and Rice Vanitha. Hope you and husband enjoy this!
Pan Fried Crispy Eggplants looks super tempting Vidya !!! So simple share dear and must be much flavorful as well
Definitely flavourful, Sasmita. Thanks.
Absolutely gorgeous dish Vidya!! I don’t even need chapatis or dal chawal with thi!! can have it just like that!! Super tempting pics!!
Then you are my best friend Swaty. I made a lot of these actually since I hogged this the next day too. Haha.
I would have never thought that namba kathrikai can be made such that iy look so inviting. Lovely recipe
Kathrikai is versatile Veena, one of the things I love about the vegetable.
Reminds me of Baingan Bhaja, the Bengali snack 🙂 I like the flour mix idea… I am sure the semolina must be adding a crispy texture to it! Thanks for sharing!
Semolina coating is signature Maharashtrian touch. Majority of their recipes use semolina coating for pan fried vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian dishes, Ashima. Thank you so much.
I can’t wait to have those vibrant red coloured, pan fried eggplant slices…… These look very much tempting…… I usually make this kind of fried brinjal slices only coating with salt and turmeric powder, which we call ‘Begun bhaja’…… But now I will try this spiced version too…..Thanks for the share… 🙂
I love Begun Bhaja with Khichdi, now you have tempted me Jayeeta!
I love this…my mum used to makes this very often with chapati or rice whenever i was super hungry after office and wanted something quick…coating with rava mixture is an awesome idea..will try with this next time..awesome share Vidya for the theme ☺👌
Thanks Anshu, I hope you enjoy making this someday.
Vidya this sounds crispy crunchy and delicious . You are right its similar to begun bhaja and beguni but different. Coating made it different to begun bhaja and instead of besan and rice flour batter like beguni you used dry flour for coating. Next time I will make it instead of begun bhaja. I would love to have it with dal chawal or khichdi Superb share.
With Dal Chawal, they really taste amazing. Glad you liked it. Thank you