Eggplants Stuffed With Onions And Tomatoes

serves 2-4
Recipe from cookthink

Roasted eggplant stuffed with aromatic tomatoes and onions is the classic Turkish dish Imam Bayaldi which roughly translates to "the priest fainted." Perhaps he fainted from the wonderful flavor imparted by the excessive olive oil in the original recipe. We cut it down, but it's no less delicious.

instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Prep all the ingredients.

2. For each eggplant, remove the top and cut lengthwise down the middle of the eggplant, taking care not to cut all the way down and stopping just before the end. Using a grapefruit spoon, gently carve out a little flesh from the inside of the eggplant so it will hold more filling. Nestle the four eggplants close together in a baking dish.

3. Heat the olive oil In a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat. When it's hot and shimmering, add the onion and cook until they begin to soften, 3-5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until it becomes fragrant, 30 seconds or so.

4. Add the tomatoes and the eggplant flesh. Cook, stirring often, until the whole mixture is very soft, 7-9 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the parsley and sugar.

5. Stuff equal amounts of the tomato mixture into the eggplants and drizzle 1 tablespoon of water over each eggplant. Cover the baking dish with foil and bake 30 minutes until the eggplants are tender. Drizzle the lemon juice over the eggplants before serving. (You can serve them warm or at room temperature.)