Allow me to introduce you to my ultimate favorite: Meat Stuffed Eggplants, known as Karniyarik in Turkish cuisine. This dish is a delightful fusion of eggplants and finely ground meat mingled with vegetables – an experience you simply mustn’t miss. The flavors are undeniably exquisite, and I can assure you that the outcome will bring you a great deal of satisfaction.
How to choose the right eggplant?
Try to find eggplants that are shiny, smooth, similar sizes, not fat, not too long. If you have fat ones, they tend to have black seeds, and these are not tasty. If you find ones that are not shiny and smooth it is a sign that they are not fresh. If you find long ones, cut in half.
Prepare the eggplants
Wash and peel the eggplants in vertical stripes to look like pyjamas. Do not peel completely as then it will soak up too much oil. Cut off the stem. Make also one deep vertical cut, this cut will be used to make a hole in each eggplant to be stuffed by the meat filling.
Brine to get rid of the black water of the eggplants and also remove the bitter taste of the bitter taste. To brine prepare a bowl of water and dissolve a teaspoon of salt in it. Add the eggplants after you peel them. Make sure they are soaked up, if necessary put something- a pot, or another bowl of water – on top of the eggplants to make sure every part of the eggplants is well covered by water. Keep the eggplants in this water for a minimum of 15 minutes. Then rinse and pat dry with paper towels.
Then fry the eggplants in a large skillet until slightly browned and soft. Then using the cut you had made earlier push down the eggplants in the middle to make them shallow and ready for the filling.
How to prepare the meat stuffing?
For the stuffing, you will need tomato, onion, garlic, peppers, parsley and ground meat. It is rather easy to prepare the stuffing. Cook as per recipe with olive oil until the onions are translucent and the ground meat is browned. You can use the same skillet used for frying the eggplants. Do not forget to add chopped parsley after removing the stuffing from the heat.
The final round of cooking
When the stuffing is ready fill each eggplant generously with the stuffing. Garnish with a slice of pepper and a slice of tomato. Place the eggplants back into the skillet, try not to put one on top of the other. Add warm water and olive oil to cover the bottom of the pot and cook over medium-low heat for another 15-20 minutes. Test readiness by pocking the end parts of eggplant with a fork. If the fork goes in easily it is a sign that the dish is ready.
What to serve with karniyarik?
Serve karniyarik with rice pilaf and shepherds salad or cucumber yogurt salad.
For those inclined toward a vegan version of stuffed eggplants, I invite you to explore my recipe: Imambayildi.
While I cannot label Karniyarik as a quick and effortless preparation, I can confidently say this main dish is extraordinarily exquisite. I strongly urge you not to overlook the opportunity to give this recipe a try. It has undeniably secured a place among my personal favorites.
Meat Stuffed Eggplants / Karnıyarık
Ingredients
Soaking
- 4 eggplants
- 1 teaspoon salt
- water to cover
Frying
- 2 long thin peppers
- 200 millilitres olive oil
Stuffing
- 150 grams ground meat lamb and/or beef
- 1 onions chopped
- 2 garlic cloves crushed
- 1 green pepper
- 1 tomato peeled, chopped
- 4-5 stalks parsley chopped
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes
- 1 pinch cumin
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
Final Touch
- 4-5 stalks parsley chopped
- 1 tomato medium sized, sliced
- ½ tomato grated
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 150 millilitres water
Instructions
Brining
- Using a knife cut off the stems of the eggplants. Peel the eggplants vertically in stripes to look like striped pyjamas.
- If the eggplants are small use as whole, if long cut horizontally into half, if fat cut vertically into half.
- Cut a vertical slit in the middle of the eggplants without cutting all the way through.
- Soak the eggplants in salty water to brine. 1 tablespoon salt will be enough. Keep eggplants in this water for at least 15° minutes to get rid of the sourness and the black color of eggplants. If the eggplants are floating up put something heavy on top. When time is up, take them out, rinse and pat dry with a paper towel.
Frying
- Use a large pan. Heat the olive oil slightly. Fry the eggplants over high heat for about 5 minutes. Turn them once in a while so they are brownish on all sides. When ready remove from the pan and set aside.
- Cut the long green peppers vertically into half, discard the stem and seeds and fry using the same pan. Set aside.
Stuffing
- Using the same pan add about 4 tablespoons/50 milliliters of olive oil. Add the chopped onion and sauté until translucent over medium heat.
- Add the crushed garlic and sauté for another minute.
- Cut off the stems and take out the seeds of the peppers. Chop to small pieces. Add to the onions. Sauté for another minute.
- Add the ground beef. Sauté mixing occasionally until the meat first leaves out and then absorbs back its water.
- Then add small chopped tomato and half of the chopped parsley.
- Season with cumin, red pepper flakes, salt and ground black pepper and cook for a further 5 minutes. Set aside.
Combining and Final Touch
- Place the eggplants back on the pan with the cut side up. Gently open up each cut with the back of a spoon to make them look like little boats. Then fill these holes with the meat stuffing. Then place a slice of tomato on each eggplant.
- Also add half long pepper on each eggplant.
- In a separate bowl mix a tablespoon of tomato paste and a grated half tomato and 150 millilitres water and salt. Pour slowly around the eggplants.
- Cook either on stove at medium heat or in the oven at 180° Celsius for about 15 minutes.
- Serve warm and garnish with the remaining chopped parsley.
Notes
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