Turkish Stuffed Dried Eggplant Recipe: Easy & Homemade
Make Turkish stuffed dried eggplant: soften 25 dried eggplants, fill with rice cooked in onion, garlic and pepper paste, then simmer with lemon.
Turkish stuffed dried eggplant is a “sour stuffed” dish from Ottoman palace cooking, where eggplants dried hard in summer are rehydrated and packed with a spiced rice filling. You soften the dried shells in boiling water, fill them with rice cooked in onion, garlic, tomato paste and pepper paste, then simmer everything with lemon juice for a sour-sweet finish.
If you haven’t tried stuffed dishes made from dried vegetables, also known as “Sour Stuffed” in Traditional Turkish Cuisine and Ottoman Palace Cuisine, we strongly recommend it. It is sour-sweetened with dry stuffed sumac spice, which is frequently consumed in the eastern region of our country. For more dishes in this family, see our guide to Turkish mezes and the closely related stuffed grape leaves. You can also browse the full Turkish recipes collection for other Ottoman classics.
Turkish Stuffed Dried Eggplant Recipe
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
- 25 dried eggplants
- 4 small onions
- 3 bulbs of garlic
- 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons of pepper paste
- 2 cups of rice
- 1 tea glass of olive oil
- 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
- 2 cups of hot water
- Black pepper
- Red pepper
- Allspice
- Salt
- Juice of 2 lemons
- Water
Method
- Boil the dried eggplants for 5 minutes until they are softened. Fry minced onions and garlic in 100ml (1 tea glass) olive oil to prepare the stuffing. When onions and garlic is softened, add the tomato paste, mix and keep cooking. Add the washed rice and 2 cups of hot water, spices, salt and sugar and cook until the water dries up.
- Fill the prepared stuffing into the softened eggplants. Place the eggplants in the pot and sprinkle lightly with salt. Add boiling water over the eggplants and cook for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes of cooking, add lemon juice and cook for another 10 minutes. Serve warm.
If you want to taste Turkish home cooking like this without making it yourself, our Taste of Two Continents food tour takes small groups (max 10) across the Spice Market breakfast, a ferry crossing, and the markets of Kadıköy. We have run food tours in Istanbul since 2013 for more than 50,000 guests, with a 4.95/5 rating from over 7,800 reviews.
