Ingredients
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2 pcs large aubergine
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1 pcs onion peeled roughly chopped
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2 pcs tomatoes peeled deseeded and chopped
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4 pcs Garlic cloves chopped
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1 teaspoon fresh parsley chopped
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1 teaspoon fresh mint chopped
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1 teaspoon sugar
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350 ml Olive oil
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2 tablespoons lemon juice
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a pinch ground cinnamon
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a pinch Black pepper
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1 tablespoon Salt
Directions
Imam Bayildi is a traditional Turkish dish made from eggplant stuffed with vegetables and topped with olive oil. The stuffing is mostly made from tomatoes, garlic, parsley, onions and herbs.
It can be served hot or cold and is most often served as an appetiser or part of an appetiser mix called meze.
Imam Bayildi is not habitual dish only in Turkish cuisine. An almost identical dish, even under a similar name, can be found in Armenian, Greek, Albanian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Israeli cuisine and in the Arab world.
Imam Bayildi Origin
The origin of this dish, as is usually the case with traditional recipes, is not entirely clear. However, it is thought to have originated sometime in the 17th century. The name of the dish itself is fascinating.
It translates as “Imam fainted” or even better “Imam swooned”. There are two different but similar legends about the origin of the name.
The first one says that a local imam (cleric) got married and when his wife prepared this meal, he passed out due to pleasure.
The second version says, was that he also got married, but he didn’t know his wife was a great cook. She brought 12 jars of finest olive oil as the dowry. She prepared this dish for him, and after tasting it, he was delighted and was looking for more. For the next eleven days, she made him the same meal. On the thirteenth day, he was not greeted by his favourite eggplants. The reason was that all the olive oil had been consumed. When he found out, the imam fainted, realizing the value he had spent in 12 days.
The Turkish language is actually full of these witty ambiguous phrases and sentences.
Now I understand why imam fainted. This dish is amazing, but you will use a lot of olive oil.
Steps
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1
Done
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Peel the aubergines with a vegetable peeler so you get a zebra look like on the image. Halve them lengthwise into two parts. You can use four smaller instead of two large aubergines, but in that case, you prepare them whole. I prefer halved ones because they give me a better visual appearance. |
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2
Done
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Sprinkle the aubergines with salt and allow 15 minutes for the salt to draw moisture from them. Be sure to wipe them off with a paper towel. Otherwise, they will be soggy. |
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3
Done
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In a frying pan, heat the olive oil and fry the aubergines on both sides. Fry for 4-5 minutes until they start to get brown colour. When done, remove them from the oil and set aside. |
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4
Done
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In the second frying pan, we will now prepare the stuffing. Heat a little olive oil and sauté onion, garlic and tomato. Season with salt and pepper and finally add the spices - sugar, cinnamon, parsley and mint. |
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5
Done
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Make a notch through the centre of the aubergine and fill it with stuffing. |
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6
Done
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Lay the stuffed aubergines in a baking tray. If there is stuffing leftover, put it in the baking tray next to them. Pour over some more olive oil and lemon juice. |
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7
Done
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Cover and place in the oven to bake for approx. 40-45 min at 160 degrees. |
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8
Done
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Remove from oven and allow to cool and then cover with the liquid left from baking. |
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9
Done
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Imam Bayildi is usually served cold and is additionally garnished with chopped fresh parsley. Yoghurt also goes excellent with this dish. |
21 Comments Hide Comments
Odličan recept!! Probali i obožavamo!!
Imam Bayildi looks and sounds delicious. Seems pretty easy and manageable to make too.
This looks like a really tasty dish. I will save the recipe and get all the ingredients I need to make this. I am positive my family will love it. We are always eager to try new recipes!
I really love eggplant. Thanks for the recipes. There are so many combination of eggplants with other ingredients. Love it!
I love eggplants! These are perfect for my plant-based diet. Though I am not strictly doing it yet.
The first time I’m coming across Imam bayildi but it does look delicious. I like how you include a little history of whatever food you write about. Thanks for the recipe too.
I love eggplant and Turkish food! This all looks amazing! Your pics are great too!
This recipe looks delicious and looks so healthy. Thanks for sharing.
This looks delicious! And something that is vegan and I can fit into my macros! Thanks for the recipe!
This looks absolutely delicious with pretty common household ingredients! All I need to get is the aubergine to make it!
MUST-TRY. I love eggplants. My favorite. I am excited about your recipe. Thanks for sharing.
I just want to let you know that my vegan friend loves this! She keeps looking for vegan recipes for all her family to enjoy!
This looks so good, unfortunately I am the only one who loves eggplant in my household but I am determined to make everyone love it.
I have made this before but not with this exact recipe. I’ll be trying this recipe really soon. Thanks for sharing!
I’ll have to give this a try. With not being able to travel abroad right now, food is the closest I can get to it.
Imam fainted! Lol. I love it! Funnily, I make something similar but I don’t add sugar or cinnamon. Just mixed veg and seasoning. I even use squash sometimes. I’m definitely trying this recipe my next aubergine!
This looks amazing! There isn’t an item in the ingredients that I *don’t* like, so I bet it tastes amazing too
I revisited this article to let you know that I tried your recipe last weekend and my family loved it. I am going to make this again soon and sharing the recipe with my sister. I am sure she will want to make this too.
The dish looks really delicious!!! I am dying to let my mom cook this one.
This looks super lovely and I will deffo be trying this out at the weekend thank you x 5 star rating based on visual post, as not yet tried the recipe out
Wow! This looks delicious. Very timely since we are about to harvest our eggplants from the garden. Would love to try this anytime this week. Thank you for sharing the recipe.