Description
Traditional and popular Turkish dish. Rich, juicy and simply delicious!
Ingredients
Scale
- 5 eggplants (long and thin, they tend to have less meat and seeds)
- 500g beef or lamb (minced)
- 1 large onion
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 3 tomatoes or 1 can (San Marzano)
- 2 sweet green (or red) peppers
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
- 1 tbsp cumin (ground)
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- Bunch of parsley
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Pinch of cayenne
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180˚C / 350˚F. Prepare your eggplants by washing them and peeling 4 strips from the skin lengthways. Transfer into a baking dish, season with salt and brush with oil. Bake for cca 40 minutes. (You can also fry them in a pan).
- Now the filling. Sautée onion in some olive oil, add your minced beef, break it up and cook until brown.
- Add cumin and a pinch of cayenne. Season with salt and pepper. Add thinly sliced garlic and diced pepper.
- Add tomato purée and sautée for a couple of minutes, then add your diced tomatoes and red pepper flakes. Cook for about 10-15 minutes. Add chopped parsley and turn off the heat.
- When your eggplants are cool enough to handle, cut directly through the middle of the peeled part, but not all the way through! After that, stuff with the beef mixture generously and place them into a baking dish.
- Lastly, make a tomato sauce. Heat some olive oil in a saucepan and sautée 1 tbsp of tomato purée. Add 2 cups of chicken stock or hot water. Reduce a little bit until smooth. Pour over the eggplants.
- Bake in a preheated oven (180˚C) for about 35 minutes. Garnish with parsley and serve with some basmati rice.
Notes
I prefer pre-baking the eggplants in the oven.
Cut the stems and peel the four strips equally spaced apart along each eggplant.
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Turkish