~173 cal · 5g protein · 35g carbs · 3g fat (estimated, per serving)
🍽️
Braised whole eggplants stuffed with onion and tomato
🇹🇷 İzmir (Aegean)
The name means "the imam fainted" — from pleasure, or at the price of the olive oil, depending on who tells it. It belongs to Turkey’s zeytinyağlı family: vegetables cooked lavishly in olive oil and eaten at room temperature, an Aegean summer institution.
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🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
Ingredients
Serves 4 —
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4 small eggplants
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3 yellow onions, thinly sliced
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3 ripe tomatoes, chopped
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6 cloves garlic, sliced
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2/3 cup olive oil
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1 tsp sugar
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1 bunch flat-leaf parsley
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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 parsley.
Aegean zeytinyağlı tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers — know your destination
📍
İzmir (Aegean). Olive-oil country, where vegetables are the main event.
🗺️
Turkey. Where Ottoman palace cooking met Anatolian village fires.
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Asia. From street-cart woks to slow monastery kitchens.
The story behind this dish is up top — worth a read while the pot works.
👩🍳
Richard Moore & Kelsey Tucker
Recipes cooked, tested, and researched by the creators of Spin the Globe. How we build our recipes →
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