Karnıyarık: Stuffed Eggplantwith Meat and Tomato
Whole eggplants are slit lengthwise, softened without losing shape, stuffed with meat, tomato, and pepper, then baked in sauce.
Karnıyarık roughly means “split belly” and refers to the distinctive preparation of this dish: the eggplant remains whole, is slit lengthwise, and filled with ground meat sautéed with onion, tomato, and pepper. The final cooking integrates the filling while keeping the skin intact as a container.
Ingredients
Eggplants
Seasoning
Eggplants and filling
Filling
Filling and sauce
Seasoning
Preparation
Prepare the eggplants
Remove alternating strips of skin, make a slit without cutting through the bottom, and soak in salted water for 30 minutes; dry thoroughly.
30 minutesSoften in the oven
Brush with half the olive oil and bake at 200 °C for 30 to 35 minutes until tender but not falling apart.
35 minutesMake the filling
Sauté onion and garlic in remaining olive oil, brown the meat, then add pepper, 300 g of tomato, salt, and pepper; reduce until thick.
20 minutesStuff without breaking
Carefully open each slit with a spoon and distribute the filling, preserving the eggplant base.
10 minutesBake in the sauce
Blend the remaining 200 g of tomato with 250 ml water, pour around the eggplants, and bake at 180 °C for 25 minutes; confirm 71 °C in the filling.
25 minutes
Substitutions
Baking instead of frying reduces oil but preserves the identity; removing the meat transforms the dish into another preparation, imam bayıldı.
Storage
Cool within two hours, cover and refrigerate; reheat until the center is piping hot.
Approximate shelf life: Up to 3 days under refrigeration.
Nutrition values are estimates and may vary by brand, substitution and actual yield.
