Imam Bayildi Recipe (Turkish Vegetarian Stuffed Eggplant)

What is Imam Bayildi?

It is one of the famous traditional Turkish recipes that is popular in Greek cuisine too. Its roots go back to Ottoman Empire times when Greek and Turk people used to live on the same land. These two cuisines have a lot in common because of their background.

Both use eggplant very often and they have their own imam bayildi recipes. Basically, roasted or fried eggplants are stuffed with a cooked tomato mixture made with tomatoes, onions, garlic cloves and green peppers. Then they are baked in the oven with a tomato sauce for perfection. While Greeks add feta cheese as the topping, we don't use any cheese on it in Turkey.

The Story Behind

As for the name of the dish, “imam” refers to a Turkish religious leader in Islam who works in mosques. “Bayildi” means fainted and is used in the Turkish language to describe how much you love something. Together, imam bayıldı basically means the imam fainted.

There are different stories about a Turkish imam and his wife. One of them says that the wife of an imam makes these tasty stuffed aubergines for her husband. And the imam faints in satisfaction as he loves the meal so much. Also, as a word "faint" in Turkish is used to describe how much you like something.

Another version of the story emphasizes how much olive oil is used. The imam's wife made this special dish with a very generous amount of oil, which used to be an expensive ingredient. So the imam fainted when he saw that much olive oil in the meal and thought about the cost of it.

Still another version is about the dowry of the imam's wife. Her father gave them 12 bottles of good quality olive oil as a part of her dowry. She made a super delicious eggplant dish for the imam. Seeing that her husband loved it so much, she made the same dish everyday for 12 days and the imam was happy about it.

On the thirteenth day though when the meal is different, his wife had to explain that there ran out of olive oil. This made the imam realize the dowry, which was like a treasure for them, was all gone. He was shocked and fainted with sadness.

Regardless of the origin of these stories, the common thing in all the versions: This is such a delicious aubergine recipe that will knock your socks off!

Difference Between Karniyarik and Imam Bayıldi

What is the difference between Turkish stuffed eggplants called karniyarik and imambayıldı recipe? They are both very popular stuffed eggplant recipes in Turkish cuisine. Karniyarik is made with a filling consisting of ground beef, onions, peppers, tomato paste, and spices. The recipe for imam bayıldı is made without ground beef and also contains some additional herbs and served at room temperature.

Also, imam bayıldı is one of those vegetarian Turkish foods that we serve cold or at room temperature and with a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil. These dishes are called zeytinyaglilar, meaning dishes made with olive oil. They contain a little sugar to balance the flavors and make the taste of olive oil stand out more.

It is mostly paired with other vegetarian cold dishes like haydari, braised green beans with tomatoes, stuffed artichoke bottoms, fresh fava beans and served on the same plate at restaurants. The perfect summer mezze platter!

If you want to try a light and delicious eggplant dish, try our imam bayildi recipe!

Why We Like This Recipe

• This is an easy eggplant recipe to make. Despite taking a while to make, it technically only has three steps; roast the eggplant, make the filling, stuff, and roast them again.
• We serve them in individual portions. If you struggle with portion size, then this vegetarian eggplant dish named imam bayildi recipe is perfect for you. You can serve one to two stuffed eggplants per person depending on the size. This will also help you figure out how much to make for your guests.
• It looks fancy. Perfect for dinner parties!
• This is a healthy stuffed aubergine recipe. Unlike the traditional recipe which calls for frying eggplants, we use the roasting method. It cuts out a ton of unnecessary oil.
• It is freezer friendly. You can make it ahead of time and store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days and in the freezer for up to 3 months.

About The Ingredients

Eggplants: Globe eggplants, also known as Italian eggplants, work the best for this recipe. Small eggplants are better to use them whole. You can cut the larger ones in half.

Filling: It consists of a medium or large onion, green peppers, chopped tomatoes, garlic cloves, salt and pepper, and some fresh parsley and mint.

Sauce: It calls for tomato paste and water. It is obviously the best when you have homemade tomato paste made from summer tomatoes. But if you are in a hurry, you can use store-bought tomato paste or puree.

Olive oil: Use the finest olive oil you can find. Be generous about it when you are making a delicious imam bayıldı recipe. As in most Turkish eggplant recipes, we use a good amount of olive oil to give the dish a nice and rich flavor. We even love to drizzle some oil over each right before serving to increase the deliciousness of the dish. YUM!

How to Make

It does take a while to make imam bayıldı, but is definitely worth the effort! If you love vegan Turkish recipes in general, this will become a favourite aubergine dish of your family.

First, prepare the eggplants. Preheat your oven and line a baking pan with non-stick baking paper. Peel the eggplants in zebra stripes without removing the stem. You can use a vegetable peeler or sharp knife for this. Allow them to soak in salted water for 15 minutes and then gently squeeze out excess water and pat them dry with a paper towel. Prick some holes on the eggplants using a fork.

Brush each eggplant with some olive oil, and bake them in the oven for roughly 30 minutes or until they are tender.

Second, prepare the filling. Heat the olive oil and sauté the onions until they are translucent. Add the chopped green peppers and cook them for about 2-3 minutes. Then, add in your tomatoes, garlic, sugar, salt, and black pepper.

Cook these ingredients together for roughly 5 minutes. Remove the filling from the heat and add your freshly chopped mint and parsley.

Third, stuff the eggplants. Cut lengthwise slits on the roasted eggplants without slicing all the way through. Using a teaspoon, gently push the edges in the deep slits to make a boat shape for the filling to lay in. Divide the filling between all of the eggplants. Place them in a baking dish, in a single layer.

Next, make the sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together the water and tomato paste and pour the sauce over the eggplants. Place them in the oven again and continue baking them for 30-40 minutes.

Remove from the oven and serve at room temperature or chilled.

Serving Suggestions

Traditionally, we love serving imam bayildi with some homemade yogurt or cacik (a cucumber yogurt dip), and some delicious side dishes like rice orzo pilaf or bulgur pilaf. 

If you like you can create your own menu and simply pair it with whatever you like as a side dish. Buckwheat groats might be a great gluten-free option or wheat berries for a nutty grain option.

You can, however, also serve this dish as part of a mezze platter. These platters can include a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables served with a variety of traditional Turkish dips and sauces.

It also includes some finger foods like cig kofte, lentil balls aka mercimek koftesi, stuffed grape leaves dolma, or some Turkish sigara borek. These are only a few of our many mezze platter recipes you can find.

Tips

• Choose the best eggplants like globe eggplants and the best tomatoes you can find (like plum tomatoes). It is easier to give them a boat shape. 
• You have to soak the eggplants in salted water. Not only does it help soften them and extract extra moisture, but they help remove the bitterness that eggplants have.
• The same goes for poking holes in your eggplant before roasting it. These holes will help your eggplant cook better and more evenly. Skipping this step can cause some parts to be overcooked while others aren’t cooked enough.
• Do not be shy when using olive oil. This is a type of olive oil dish and especially when roasting them, it is important to use a generous amount. Before serving this dish, add even more olive oil!
• You can add a little lemon juice in the filling if you want.
• You can fry your eggplants in a frying pan instead of roasting them.
• If there are any leftovers, you can easily wrap and freeze them for up to 3 months.

More Eggplant Recipes

• Stuffed Dried Eggplant Recipe
• Eggplant Kebabs
• No Tahini Babaganoush
• Roasted Eggplant Salad

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