Karniyarik – stuffed eggplants Turkish style

Karniyarik – delicious, spicy stuffed eggplants. A Turkish original recipe. The eggplants are stuffed with delicious, spicy minced meat and vegetables. And of course my recipe is vegan.

Karniyarik recipe – like the original, but vegan

My Turkish stuffed eggplants, Karniyarik, are indistinguishable from the original with minced meat. Just as full-bodied, spicy, filling and delicious. A mouthwatering bliss!

What exactly is Karniyarik?

Karnıyarık is a marvellous dish from Turkish cuisine that consists of stuffed eggplants that are peeled in a special way into strips and cooked in the oven. The filling is a spicy, aromatic minced meat filling with sautéed, chopped onions, peppers, garlic and tomatoes.

Which side dishes go well with Karniyarik?

Suitable side dishes for Turkish stuffed eggplants:

• Rice
• Bulgur
• Couscous salad
• Tabbouleh
• Fries
• Flatbread.

But various mezze are also a good thing to go with.

I refine the stuffing of the Karniyarik with preserved salt lemons.

Homemade preserved lemons give my Karniyarik filling a fresh, depth of flavor. I didn’t skimp on spices either, and so the stuffed vegetables become an absolute feast!

If you don’t have any preserved lemons, I recommend you pickle some. They last forever in the fridge and the older they get, the better they get. If you’re in a hurry, you can also make this recipe with fresh lemons.

By the way, I always make my minced meat fillings completely myself

The food industry has a great interest in discouraging people from cooking for themselves. Profits multiply through pre-processed food. Unfortunately at the expense of the ingredients and therefore also the nutrients. And vegan minced meat in particular is very easy to make yourself. No palm oil, generally much less fatty, no sugar, made from nutritious soy. Also good for the climate, as there is minimal waste.

And in my opinion, much, much tastier and better seasoned. The latter is particularly important with this recipe.

Karniyarik are gluten-free

By the way, the stuffing for the eggplants is gluten-free. And so is the whole recipe.
This way you can prepare this meal for people who are gluten intolerant or have celiac disease.

More recipes from Levante cuisine

Are you looking for more vegan, Levante recipes? Then I have got some for you here:

• Borek with spinach and feta stuffing
• Hummus – creamy and full-bodied flavoured
• Piyaz – a Turkish white bean salad
• Beetroot hummus – simple, delicious and pink!
• Kashke Bademjan, Persian eggplant dip

I look forward to seeing your Karniyarik with minced meat when you try this recipe!

Feel free to follow me on Instagram or Facebook. And I would be delighted if you make this hearty aubergine recipe, if you’d post the result on social media and tag my account there. This also applies to my other recipes, of course. I always find it really great and exciting to see how my recipes are prepared in other kitchens

Karniyarik – the preparation in pictures

Here you can see in picture how I prepare the stuffed eggplants. Then I’ll go straight on with the recipe.

Ingredients for 4 servings of Karniyarik:

Stuffed eggplants:

4 eggplants

Filling:

150 g fine soy granules, dry (the small TVP granules)
3 tomatoes, diced
2 onions, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 peppers (pickled), finely chopped
1/2 tsp smoked paprika powder
1/2 tsp sweet paprika powder
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp paprika paste
2 tsp preserved salted lemon, finely diced (alternatively fresh lemon)
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp parsley, roughly chopped
250 ml water
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Tomato sauce:

2 tbsp tomato paste
300 ml boiling water
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp Salt

Also:

7-10 peppers (pickled)
1/2 preserved salt lemon, in thin strips (alternatively fresh lemon)
Some chopped parsley

Preparation:

Prepare the eggplants:

1. Preheat the oven to 220° top and bottom heat.
2. Peel four strips lengthways from the eggplants using a vegetable peeler. The vegetables should then be striped, consisting of strips with peel and strips without.
3. Now rub the eggplants with a little olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt.
4. Then place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake on the middle shelf for 30 minutes.

Eggplant stuffing:

1. While the eggplants are in the oven, I prepare the stuffing.
2. Heat a pan with a little olive oil. Then sauté the onions and garlic in it.
3. Now add the dry soy granules and fry until hot. Stir often. The soy granules may turn slightly brown in places.
4. Then stir in the spices.
5. Then add the diced tomatoes, 250 ml water, peppers, tomato paste, paprika paste, chopped salt lemon, lemon juice and parsley.
6. Fry for 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently. At the end, most of the liquid should have evaporated and the filling should look more mushy or chunky.
7. Season with salt and pepper.
8. Take the eggplants out of the oven. Then reduce the oven heat to 175° top and bottom heat.
9. Let the eggplants cool down a little. Then line them up next to each other in a casserole dish.
10. Split the eggplants open lengthways on one side, in one of the peeled strips, with a knife. Pull the slit apart with two forks. Add the filling there.

Tomato sauce:

1. Mix all the ingredients for the tomato sauce together.
2. Add the sauce to the eggplants in the casserole dish so that the stuffed oven-baked vegetables are on top.

Finish cooking the karniyarik:

1. Top the purely plant-based karniyarik with the peppers and the preserved lemon strips.
2. Bake in the oven on the middle shelf at 175° for 30 minutes.
3. Sprinkle the oven-baked eggplants with some freshly chopped parsley.

Enjoy your meal!