The core of this delicious way to prepare eggplants is vegan, without having to change anything in the traditional recipe. It is a classic of Turkish cuisine, but variations are also known in Greece, Albania and Bulgaria. İmam bayıldı (here the pronunciation) means “the imam fainted”. This is said to have happened in ecstasy at the glory of this dish.
In Turkey and even in some Turkish cookbooks, you can sometimes find imam bayildi with minced meat in the filling, but the dish is then actually called patlıcan karnıyarık.
Imam Bayildi tastes wonderful at any time of day and can be enjoyed hot, tepid or cold. It is great as part of mixed starters or as a main course. In the latter case, it is often served with rice and yoghurt.
Remove half of the skin from large, dark purple (and of course washed) eggplants. To do this, peel off strips about 2 cm wide with a peeler, leaving just as much skin in between. Then cut the fruit in half lengthwise and cut out most of the flesh with a small knife. However, it is important to leave a rim of at least 1 cm, as the halves of the fruit will later serve as a container. Cut the removed skin and flesh into approx. 1 cm pieces.
Brush the inside and outside of the eggplant halves with a little olive oil, which is best done by hand. Then place them upside down on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake for 15 minutes at 180° C without fan for a first time.
Cut pointed peppers in half and remove the seeds and stalks. Then cut them into strips that are not too thin. Overall, it is good for this dish if you leave enough texture to the filling. Tomatoes are also halved and then cut into pieces, removing the stalks.
Sauté chopped onions and garlic in olive oil over a medium-high heat for a few minutes without letting them take on any colour.
Then add ground cumin, a little cinnamon and sugar, a little chili flakes to taste (we use Turkish Pul Biber), salt and pepper and grated lemon zest. Make sure you buy an untreated lemon and rinse it thoroughly under hot water.
Tomato puree is added to this spicy mixture and fried for a minute so that it loses its acidity and does not taste bitter later.
Now add the pieces of eggplant and their skin. Mix everything thoroughly and continue to cook over a medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.
At about this point you can take the eggplants out of the oven, they will already be a little soft.
Add the diced tomatoes and strips of pointed peppers to the eggplants in the pot. The last spice to be added is dried oregano. If you can get Turkish oregano, use it, it is extremely flavorful. Stir well and leave to simmer on a medium heat for 10 minutes.
The pre-baked halves of the eggplants are filled with the vegetables from the pot and placed in a sufficiently high, ovenproof dish. Simply spread the remaining filling around them. Finally, drizzle the whole thing with a little more olive oil and juice of the lemon. If the filling seems too dry, add a little water.
The eggplants are then returned to the oven and baked again at 180° C without fan for 40 minutes.
The last ingredient is fresh, roughly chopped herbs. A mixture of parsley and mint works best for our taste.
As already mentioned, the classic sides are rice and yogurt, but this dish tastes great on its own and can be combined in almost any way, for example with salads.
Enjoy.
And may the taste be with you.
Ingredients (for 2 people as a main course):
2 large dark purple eggplants
4 tbsp olive oil
1 – 2 green pointed peppers (“Sivri”)
200 g vine tomatoes
1 medium-sized onion
1 – 2 garlic cloves
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp each cinnamon and sugar
½ tsp Pul Biber or chili flakes
Salt and black pepper from the mill
½ organic lemon
2 tbsp tomato puree
2 tsp dried oregano
5 sprigs of parsley
2 sprigs of mint
