Imam Baildi (aka Stuffed Eggplant)

There are a lot of Greek recipes that utilize eggplant…but this one is one of the simplest ones and very healthy AND only has 6 ingredients. My mother used to make this a lot when I was growing up. I used to love slopping up the olive oil sauce with some warm bread and eating it with some feta cheese…oh my gosh, it is wonderful.

You can use any type of eggplant you want, but I prefer the Japanese style eggplants. I think they have a sweeter taste and also the skin cooks up nice and soft. If you substitute most of the onions with ground beef and then add some bechamel on top it becomes a different eggplant recipe, called papoutsakia (little shoes), but that is a recipe for another time 🙂 .

You just need:

• 2 long Japanese style eggplants, cut in half
• 1 large sweet onion, sliced thinly
• 4-6 garlic cloves, sliced thinly or chopped
• 4 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley, chopped
• 2 tablespoons of spearmint (or other variety of mint), chopped (optional)
• 3/4 cup petite diced canned tomatoes (or chopped fresh), with juices
• 1/8 to 1/4 cup olive oil, plus a couple of drizzles
• Salt and pepper to taste

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Make a slit down the middle of each of the 4 pieces of eggplant and put into a greased pan.
3. Drizzle with olive oil and rub all over the pieces, season with salt and pepper then cover with foil.
4. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the eggplants soften slightly, or you can pan fry with a little oil in non-stick pan.
5. Saute thinly sliced onion in a pan until mostly cooked, then mix in the rest of the ingredients, stir, turn off heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
6. Remove eggplants from oven and open the slits and fill with onion mixture. Stuff each one as much as you can and then set the rest of the filling on top of the eggplants.
7. Cover with foil again and bake in oven for an hour to 1 1/2 hours (the eggplant should be tender and onions should be totally cooked).
8. Remove foil and bake for another 10-15 minutes until top is slightly brown (this step optional).
9. Serve and enjoy with a lettuce salad, feta, and warm bread.

Kali Orexi!