Stuffed Eggplants | Dolmeh Bademjoon

Have you ever made Persian dolma with eggplants? If not, you have lost the chance of tasting a heavenly made Persian dish! Eggplant dolma is a very appetizing looking main dish that is made by bademjans (eggplants) filled with some stuffing.

The stuffing can range from meat and sauce to vegetarian stuff. It is all on your taste and personal preferences. The very cute point is that you can sprinkle some cheese at the end for the topping and make an Italian-like dish out of this traditional Persian dish!

If you are a fan of interesting and surprising taste dishes, this recipe can satisfy you. Just surprise your guests by the stuffing ingredients and good-looking eggplants baked in the oven!

What are you waiting for? Follow along and learn the fabulous dolma recipe! You can also learn Dolme Barge Mo and Dolme Felfel.

Stuffed Eggplants | Eggplants Dolma

Mouthwatering eggplants with stuff hidden in their belly! Dolmeh Bademjan (stuffed eggplant) is a kind of Dolmeh (Dolma or Dolmasi) made with eggplants. Dolma is originally a Turkish word which means filled or to be filled. There are several kinds of this food made with grape leaves (Dolmeh Barg), cabbage leaves (Barg Kalam), bell pepper, tomato or zucchini. Dolmeh Bademjan is one of the most favorite ones among them, which can be served both as an appetizer and the main course. Just like stuffed chicken, it is a fancy Iranian dish.

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Prep Time 40 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 19 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs

Course Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine persian

Servings 5 people

Ingredients

  

• ½ cup rice
• ½ cup split peas
• 5 eggplants
• 300 grams mined meat
• 4 onions
• 500 grams Sabzi Dolmeh (Vegetables for Dolma) (including mint, scallions, basil, dill, Persian leek, parsley, cilantro, tarragon)
• 2 tablespoons tomato sauce
• 4 tomatoes
• 3 cups water
• Salt, Turmeric, Black pepper, cinnamon, lemon juice, oil as much as needed

Instructions

 

Preparation of the ingredients

• Rinse the split beans in a colander and remove any small stones or pieces of debris. Split beans (and all sorts of beans) are better to be soaked in water over night, in order to break down some of the complex sugars that make it hard for some people to digest. Soaking also makes it faster for the beans to cook. Discard the soaking water and use some fresh water for the beans to soak in, every two or three hours (The water needs to be replaced with some fresh water).
• Put the split beans in some boiling water until they are half cooked. (half cooked for beans is when the they are not tender but easily cut between your fingertips)
• Put the rice in the boiling water for about 10 minutes until half cooked. (half cooked for rice is when it’s soft on the outside and hard at the core). Then, separate the rice from the water using a sieve.
• Cut off a slice from the top of the eggplants (almost the top 2 centimeters need to be removed) and set it aside to be used as a cap later. Hollow out the eggplants leaving some flesh attached to the skin (almost 1 centimeter of the flesh needs to remain). Discard the seeds but reserve some of the white flesh. Add some salt on the eggplants and leave them in a colander for 30 minutes or one hour. This will remove their bitterness an give the final dish a better taste,. (Eggplants used for Dolma are usually used unpeeled. But they can also be peeled in a checked or stripy manner as a sort of topping)

Preparation for stuffing the eggplants:

• Peel two of the onions and dice them. Add some oil to a pan and sauté the onions until they look translucent. Add the minced beef to the onions, sauté taht a little bit and add some turmeric, salt and pepper. Add two spoons of the tomato sauce a little bit later and sauté it with the other ingredients for a little while, then simmer them in some water until they seem to be tender. (almost 15 minutes)
• Wash the vegetables for Dolme and chop them. Then add them to the ingredients in the pan and sauté that for a little bit longer. Add the half cooked split beans and rice to the pan and stir them for them to be combined. The stuff for filling the eggplants is now ready.

Stuffing the eggplants

• Stuff the eggplants with the combination above. Don’t fill the eggplants with the stuff completely. Leave them hollow at the top in order to give the rice enough space to get cooked (Because the rice expands after cooking completely). Put the caps on top of the stuffed eggplants. The eggplants can be fried before getting stuffed, but it’s not necessary, specially if you are using the eggplants unpeeled.
• preparation of the Dolma Sauce
• Dice the two remaining onions. Add some oil to a pot, heat it for a little while, then add the diced onions. Dice the tomatoes and add them to the pot. Add the flesh removed from inside the eggplants to the pot. Add some salt, pepper, turmeric and cinnamon. Sauté the ingredients for a while, then add a little lemon juice and some water. Some tomato sauce can also be added to get a better color.
• Wait until the water boils, then put the eggplants in the pot vertically, cover the pot with its lid and let the Dolmehs cook. You can open the lid once in a while and add some of the sauce from around the Dolmehs to their top, letting Dolmeh stuff get soaked in the delicious sauce. After one hour, Dolmeh Bademjan is ready to serve.

Topping and Serving Dolmeh Bademjan:

• After the pieces of Stuffed Eggplants are cooked, lay them in a big plate.
• Eggplants Dolma is usually served with bread (Specially Sangak bread), Sabzi Khordan, lemon juice and Torshi.
• Sometimes, a combination of this dish and Bell Peppers Dolma are cooked and served together.

Tips for cooking Dolmeh Bademjan (Stuffed Eggplants)

1. You can make Dolmeh Bademjan with smaller eggplants. It is better for the eggplants to be almost of the same size.
2. This dish can be a really suitable one for vegetarians. You can simply substitute the beef with mushrooms, soy, more split beans or herbals and make the vegetarian version of Domeh Bademjan. You can also add some mozzarella on top of the Dolmehs and let it cook in an oven.
3. You can use Robe Anar (pomegranate molasses) instead of tomato sauce. This sauce adds a sour flavor to Dolmeh, which is highly recommended in the recipe.
4. Garlic can also be used among the combination for stuffing the eggplants, or in its sauce.
5. You can freeze the stuffing of Dolmeh for later use. In this case, don’t forget to label it with the date of cooking for possible later uses for cooking Stuffed Eggplants.

As you know, different types of Dolma are cooed all around the world, among the Iranian ones, which one do you like?

Have you ever tried this one? If not, how do you think it tastes before cooking an tasting it? We would love to know about your opinions.