🍢 SNACK
Makdous (Syrian Oil-Cured Stuffed Eggplants)
Baby eggplants blanched, salted and pressed, stuffed with walnuts, red pepper, chili and garlic and cured under olive oil for days until tangy, then eaten straight from the jar with warm flatbread.
Syrian · medium · serves 10
prep 60 min · cook 10 min · plus 5.5 days hands-off time
~544 cal · 4g protein · 11g carbs · 56g fat · 5g fiber · 5g sugars · 7g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Makdous are small eggplants stuffed with walnuts, red pepper and garlic and packed in olive oil, and they are one of the great preserves of Syria. The name comes from an Arabic root meaning to heap or pile, for the way the eggplants are packed tightly together in the jar. Pickled stuffed eggplants already appear in a thirteenth-century Syrian cookbook, the Kitab al-Wusla ila l-Habib.
Families make them in big batches in late summer and autumn, when the small eggplants and red peppers are cheap, to last through the winter. The eggplants are boiled until just soft, salted and pressed for days to squeeze out their water, stuffed and then covered in oil, where they slowly turn sour. Kept under oil they last for months.
Makdous are eaten at breakfast and supper, as a snack at any hour and on the table: a couple lifted out of the jar with some of their oil and eaten with warm flatbread. As prices climbed during the war years, a winter's supply of makdous became a luxury for many Syrian households.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and dairy-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 10
- 1 kg (about 20) baby eggplants, 8 to 10 cm long
- 3 tbsp coarse salt, for salting, plus 1 tsp for the filling
- 150 g walnuts, coarsely chopped
- 2 (about 300 g) red bell peppers, very finely chopped and squeezed dry
- 1 tbsp hot red pepper paste
- 2 tsp Aleppo pepper or mild chili flakes
- 1 small head (about 8 cloves) garlic, crushed
- about 500 ml olive oil, to cover, most of it stays in the jar
- as needed flatbread, to serve
Instructions
- 1Trim the eggplant stems but leave the green caps on. Bring a large pot of water to the boil, add the eggplants and weigh them down with a heatproof plate so they stay under. Boil for 8 to 10 minutes, until softened but still holding their shape, then plunge them into iced water.
- 2Drain the eggplants. Make a slit along each one from end to end without cutting through, and rub coarse salt inside and out. Lay them slit side down in a colander, cover with a plate and a heavy weight and leave for 2 days to press out their water, emptying the drained liquid now and then.
- 3Mix the walnuts, red pepper, pepper paste, Aleppo pepper, garlic and 1 teaspoon of salt into a thick filling. Open each eggplant gently and stuff it with about a tablespoon of the filling.
- 4Pack the stuffed eggplants upside down in a colander or on a rack and leave for 8 hours to drain off the last of their liquid.✎ Chef’s noteThe drier the eggplants go into the jar, the longer the makdous keep without spoiling.
- 5Pack them tightly, slit side up, into clean sterilised jars and pour in olive oil to cover them completely. Close the jars and leave at room temperature for at least 3 days to cure before eating.✎ Chef’s noteThey grow more sour the longer they sit. Kept fully covered in oil, makdous last for many months; top up the oil whenever you take some out.
- 6Lift out two or three at a time with a little of their oil and eat them with warm flatbread.
Syrian home preserving tradition (mouneh).
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Damascus. Not everything Syrian is Damascene. Muhammara, with its walnuts, red pepper and pomegranate molasses, belongs to Aleppo, as do the kibbeh styles built on sour cherries or pistachios and much of the seven-spice habit. What Damascus has instead is age, among the oldest continuously inhabited cities anywhere.
🗺️
Syria. Syrian cooking is a jewel of the Levant, famous for kibbeh, stuffed vegetables, muhammara, and the aromatic Aleppo pepper. Olive oil, pomegranate molasses, and a deep tradition of hospitality shape its generous mezze table.
🌍
Asia. Fermentation is the thread that runs the whole way across: soy sauce and miso, Korean doenjang and kimchi, Southeast Asian fish sauces, the soured batter behind an idli. Chilli is the newcomer among them, arriving only after 1500 with Portuguese and Spanish traders, which makes the heat in Sichuan, Thai and Korean cooking far younger than the fermenting underneath it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Syria
KibbehTorpedo-shaped bulgur shells stuffed with spiced meat and pine nuts, fried until crisp.
BalilaWarm chickpeas dressed with cumin, lemon, garlic, and olive oil, a simple Damascene breakfast.
Chicken ShawarmaMarinated spiced chicken roasted and shaved into flatbread with garlic sauce and pickles, the Levant's great street lunch.
Browse all Syria recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Best the day it is made. Wrap well and refresh in a warm oven, or freeze and reheat straight from frozen.
Make it a Syria meal
Sous (Licorice Drink)Drink
Halawet el JibnDessert
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Makdous (Syrian Oil-Cured Stuffed Eggplants)?
Baby eggplants blanched, salted and pressed, stuffed with walnuts, red pepper, chili and garlic and cured under olive oil for days until tangy, then eaten straight from the jar with warm flatbread.
Where does Makdous (Syrian Oil-Cured Stuffed Eggplants) come from?
Makdous (Syrian Oil-Cured Stuffed Eggplants) is a Syrian dish from Damascus, Syria.
Can Makdous (Syrian Oil-Cured Stuffed Eggplants) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Makdous (Syrian Oil-Cured Stuffed Eggplants) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Makdous (Syrian Oil-Cured Stuffed Eggplants) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Makdous (Syrian Oil-Cured Stuffed Eggplants) take to make?
About 5.5 days in all: 60 minutes prep and 10 minutes cooking, plus 5.5 days of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 10.
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