Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
İmam Bayıldı (Swooning Imam’s Eggplant)
Whole eggplants braised in olive oil until silken, stuffed with sweet onions, tomato, and garlic. Served cool.
Turkish (Aegean) · easy · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 50 min
~173 cal · 5g protein · 35g carbs · 3g fat · 12g fiber · 17g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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İmam bayıldı, 'the imam swooned', is a jewel of Turkish olive-oil cooking: whole eggplants until meltingly silken and stuffed with a sweet, slow-cooked tangle of onions, garlic, and tomatoes. The name comes from a legend that an imam fainted with pleasure (or, some say, at the cost of the olive oil) on tasting it.
The dish belongs to the 'zeytinyağlı' tradition of vegetables cooked in generous olive oil and served at room temperature, a hallmark of the Aegean coast around İzmir. The eggplant is fried or until collapsing-tender, then filled and simmered until the flavors meld into something rich and jammy.
Eaten cool as a meze or light main with bread, imam bayıldı is naturally vegan, the olive oil, sweet onion, and eggplant cooking down together into something jammy and soft.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, nut-, 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 4
4 small eggplants
3 yellow onions, thinly sliced
3 ripe tomatoes, chopped
6 cloves garlic, sliced
2/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp sugar
1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, and dill if you have it
1/2 lemon
Instructions
1
Peel the eggplants in zebra stripes and fry whole in half the oil until golden on all sides. Set in a baking dish.
2
Soften the onions and garlic in the remaining oil; add tomatoes, sugar, salt, and most of the parsley for 5 minutes.
3
Slit each eggplant lengthwise without cutting through and pack the onion mixture generously into the openings.
4
Pour 1/2 cup water around them, cover, and bake at 350°F for 35 minutes until collapsing.
5
Cool to room temperature, this is not optional, and serve with lemon and the last of the parsley and dill.
✎ Chef’s note
Imam bayildi belongs to the zeytinyagli family, vegetables braised generously in olive oil and eaten at room temperature rather than hot. Served straight from the oven it tastes of little; given an hour to come down to room temperature the oil, onion and tomato settle into the sweetness that is the whole point of the dish.
Aegean zeytinyağlı tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
İzmir (Aegean). Two Izmir specifics are easy to get wrong. Izmir kofte is baked in the oven with potatoes and tomatoes rather than grilled, which is the whole point of the name; and Izmir-style kokorec is made without tomatoes, unlike the versions sold further east. Both are small distinctions locals will correct you on.
🗺️
Turkey. Baklava's origins are genuinely unsettled, argued between Greek, Arab-Persian and Central Asian Turkic ancestries, so nobody should be handed the invention. What is documented is Gaziantep: its baklava was the first Turkish product to win an EU protected geographical indication, in 2013, and the specification requires Antep pistachios.
🌍
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 Turkey
LahmacunPaper-thin flatbread blistered under a spiced lamb, pepper, and parsley crust, rolled with lemon and herbs.
MantiTiny hand-pinched meat dumplings under garlic yogurt and paprika-mint butter, Kayseri’s legendary labor of love.
MenemenSoft eggs scrambled into a simmered base of tomato, green pepper, and pul biber.
Browse all Turkey recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven.
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a Turkey meal
AyranDrink
BaklavaDessert
LahmacunLunch
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Frequently asked questions
What is İmam Bayıldı (Swooning Imam’s Eggplant)?
Whole eggplants braised in olive oil until silken, stuffed with sweet onions, tomato, and garlic. Served cool.
Where does İmam Bayıldı (Swooning Imam’s Eggplant) come from?
İmam Bayıldı (Swooning Imam’s Eggplant) is a Turkish (Aegean) dish from İzmir (Aegean), Turkey.
Can İmam Bayıldı (Swooning Imam’s Eggplant) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This İmam Bayıldı (Swooning Imam’s Eggplant) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is İmam Bayıldı (Swooning Imam’s Eggplant) 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 count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), 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 İmam Bayıldı (Swooning Imam’s Eggplant) take to make?
About 70 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 50 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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