Imam Bayildi

Imam Bayildi (İmam Bayıldı)

In Turkish: İmam Bayıldı, literally “the imam fainted.” Legend tells of an imam who fainted from sheer pleasure when he tasted the dish; a more cynical version claims he fainted when he heard how much olive oil went into it. Both versions teach the same thing — this is a dish defined by its oil.

Imam bayildi is the quintessential representative of the zeytinyağlılar family, vegetable dishes cooked in olive oil and eaten at room temperature rather than hot. Whole eggplants are opened like a boat and stuffed with a mixture of onion, lots of garlic, tomatoes and parsley, then cooked slowly until completely tender. The dish is vegan by origin, with no adaptation needed.

Prep time: 25 minutes · Cooking time: 45 minutes · Total: about 70 minutes (plus cooling) · Yield: 4 servings · Difficulty: Medium

zeytinyağlılar: a whole category of vegetables in olive oil

Imam bayildi isn’t a standalone dish but a member of a defined family on the Turkish menu — zeytinyağlılar, “those in olive oil.” All the dishes in the family are built on the same principle: one main vegetable, onion, a generous amount of olive oil, a little sugar and lemon, slow cooking, and serving at room temperature once the flavors have settled. Other notable members are zeytinyağlı fasulye (green beans in tomatoes), enginar (artichoke with peas and carrots) and a range of dolma — vegetables stuffed with rice, whose Iraqi version is a dolma of six vegetables in one pot.

This category took shape in the Ottoman palace kitchens, but it’s also the tradition that made Turkish cuisine friendly to vegetarians and vegans long before those terms existed: all zeytinyağlı dishes are free of animal products to begin with, and many of them were eaten precisely on Christian and Muslim fast days.

Ingredients (for 4 servings — 2 eggplants)

• 2 medium long eggplants (about 300 g each)
• 3 medium onions, thinly sliced into half-rings
• 6-8 garlic cloves, whole or sliced — don’t skimp, this is the heart of the dish
• 3 ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 sweet green pepper, chopped
• A handful of chopped parsley
• 100-120 ml olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sugar, salt and black pepper
• Juice of half a lemon
• 150 ml hot water

Choosing ingredients and substitutes

Regular small or medium eggplants work; choose them by weight so the cooking time is similar. A regular sweet green pepper replaces the long Turkish pepper. If you want heat, add a little hot pepper separately. You can replace the three tomatoes with 400 g of canned chopped tomatoes and reduce the filling well.

Method

1. Peel the eggplants in stripes. Peel alternating strips of skin from each eggplant (a “pajama” pattern), so it keeps its shape during cooking but absorbs flavor. Cut a deep slit along the length of each eggplant, without cutting all the way through.
2. Salt and dry. Soak the eggplants in salted water for about 20 minutes and dry well. This step reduces bitterness and, above all, cuts the amount of oil they’ll absorb.
3. Sear. Fry the eggplants in about 3 tablespoons of olive oil on all sides until browned and softened, and transfer to a deep baking dish, slit side up.
4. Make the filling. In the same pan, fry the onion over low heat 10-12 minutes until golden and sweet, add the garlic and green pepper for another 2 minutes, then the tomatoes, sugar, salt and pepper. Cook 10 minutes until the sauce reduces, and turn off the heat. Stir in the parsley.
5. Stuff. Gently open the eggplant slit with a spoon and fill generously with the onion and tomato mixture.
6. Cook slowly. Pour the hot water, lemon juice and remaining olive oil into the dish, cover and bake in an oven preheated to 180°C (356°F) for about 40-45 minutes, until the eggplant is completely tender and cuts with a spoon.
7. Cool. This is the point most people miss — imam bayildi is eaten at room temperature or cold from the fridge, never piping hot. The flavors settle after a few hours.

Nutrition facts and calorie estimate

The recommended serving is half a stuffed eggplant — a quarter of the recipe.

It’s important to say this explicitly: about two-thirds of the calories in the dish come from the olive oil. 100 ml of oil is about 780 calories divided among four servings — about 195 per serving, before we’ve even touched the vegetables. The eggplant itself, before it meets the oil, is about 25 calories per 100 g — one of the leanest vegetables there is. Eggplant is a sponge: its porous cell structure takes up oil in hard-to-believe amounts, so the same dish can range from 150 to 400 calories depending solely on technique.

On the other hand, the fat here isn’t “waste” — it’s olive oil, and its fatty acid profile is exactly what the Mediterranean diet is built on. See more on the olive oil page and in the comparison of olive, coconut and avocado oil.

How to cut calories without ruining the dish

• Roast instead of fry: Roast the eggplants in the oven at 200°C with 2 tablespoons of oil instead of frying. A saving of about 80-100 calories per serving.
• Soak in salted water: A water-saturated eggplant absorbs less oil — this is actually a physical principle, not a kitchen myth.
• Cut the cooking oil, not the serving oil: Reduce the oil in the dish and drizzle a tablespoon of good olive oil at the end. The flavor stays, the calories drop.

Summary

Imam bayildi is a complete vegan dish that rests on two cheap ingredients — eggplant and onion — and on olive oil in an amount that determines its entire calorie profile. About 300 calories per eggplant half, eight grams of fiber, and an excellent fat profile. It’s served cold alongside cacık and bread, and makes a good first course before Adana kebab. More recipes in Turkish cuisine.