TURKEY
stuffed Eggplant
1 hour
4 persons
Easy
This stuffed eggplant with pepper and tomato, or 'Karnıyarık', is a real Turkish classic. Karnıyarık literally means 'split belly', referring to the fact that the vegetable is cut. This four-person dish can be served with pilav or cacik (Turkish yogurt sauce) as side dishes for a complete meal. We ate two per person, without side dishes, and this was more than enough for a full dinner. The soft aubergines are a delicious combination with the spicy minced meat, but the minced meat can easily be replaced with vegetarian minced meat.
Preparation
Step 1: Fry the eggplants
Preheat the oven to 180°.
Shave long strips of skin off each eggplant vertically (from top to bottom), alternating between long strips. The eggplant now has vertical stripes.
Score the eggplant from top to bottom, but do not go all the way through. This ensures that you can 'open' the eggplant later for filling.
Heat olive oil in a large pan and fry the aubergines until they soften. In the meantime, go to step 2, but don't forget to turn the eggplant occasionally so that it softens evenly.
Step 2: Prepare the filling
Chop the onion and finely chop the garlic.
Fry the onion in a pan with olive oil and add the garlic and (vegetarian) minced meat.
In the meantime, cut the peppers into small pieces and chop the parsley finely.
Add the paprika, half of the parsley, the diced tomatoes, cumin seeds, chili flakes, salt and pepper to the minced meat mixture.
Step 3: Fill the eggplant and heat in the oven
Place the eggplants on an oven tray and fill them with the filling from step 2.
Bake it in the oven for 30 minutes at 180°.
Serve the eggplants and sprinkle the remaining parsley over them.
(Optional) Step 4: The 'cacik'
Finely chop the garlic and cut the cucumbers into small cubes.
Add the garlic, cucumber and dried mint to the yoghurt and stir well.
Add salt to taste and garnish the cacik with some fresh mint leaves.
Ingredients
For 4 persons:
Olive oil
4 large eggplants
2 peppers
2 medium onions
2 cloves of garlic
400 grams of diced tomatoes in a can
300 grams of minced beef (or vegetarian minced meat)
15 grams of fresh parsley
1.5 tsp ground cumin seeds
0.5 tsp chili flakes
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional: cacik
250 grams of Turkish or Greek yogurt
1 clove garlic
100 grams of cucumber
1 tsp dried mint
A few leaves of fresh mint
Salt to taste
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Afiyet olsun! ('Enjoy your meal!')
