İmam Bayıldı in the UK: what it is, how to order it, where to find it

Name: İmam Bayıldı
Total time: 90 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 4 small aubergines; 150 ml olive oil, plus more for frying; 3 onions, thinly sliced; 4 cloves garlic, sliced; 3 tomatoes, chopped; a large handful of parsley, chopped; 1 tsp sugar, salt, black pepper; juice of half a lemon; 100 ml water

Quick answer

Imam bayıldı is aubergine stuffed with onion, tomato and garlic, cooked slowly in a great deal of olive oil and served cold. The name means 'the imam fainted', and the dish is the best known of the zeytinyağlılar, the Turkish olive-oil vegetable dishes served at room temperature as starters. It is vegan by tradition rather than by design, and in the UK it is on most Turkish menus as a cold meze or a starter.

Calories and nutrition

Calories: 320
Protein: 4 g
Carbs: 22 g
Fat: 25 g
Salt: 1.0 g

Portion: One stuffed aubergine, about 250 g, served cold.

Almost all the energy is olive oil; it is vegan and high in fibre.

Estimates for a typical portion, based on standard UK and USDA food composition data. Actual values depend on the recipe and the restaurant.

What imam bayıldı is

Small aubergines are peeled in stripes and fried or roasted until soft, then slit and filled with a mixture of sliced onion, chopped tomato, garlic and parsley that has been cooked gently in olive oil. The stuffed aubergines go into a pan with more olive oil, a little water and a pinch of sugar, and simmer, covered, until the aubergine is collapsing and the oil has been absorbed. They are cooled in the pan and served at room temperature, often the next day, with bread. The dish is defined by olive oil; a version made with less is a different dish.

The zeytinyağlı family

Turkish cooking has a whole category of vegetable dishes cooked in olive oil and served cold: green beans with tomato, artichoke hearts with broad beans, leeks with rice, celeriac with carrot, stuffed vine leaves. Imam bayıldı is the richest. They are made in quantity, kept in the fridge, and served as starters or a light lunch with yoghurt and bread. In a good lokanta there will be three or four in the cold section, and a mixed plate of them is one of the best vegetarian meals in Turkish cooking.

How to judge it

The aubergine should be meltingly soft, the onions sweet and collapsed, the oil visible on the plate and tasting of good olives. It should be served cool, not cold from the fridge, and never hot. If it tastes bitter the aubergine was not salted or cooked enough; if it is dry the oil was skimped. Made the day before, it is better than made the same day.

Where in the UK it is done well

The lokanta and meze restaurants of North London make it as part of their cold section, and the Turkish Cypriot restaurants of Haringey and Enfield keep it on the menu year round. The ranking below counts restaurants in our directory whose name signals a lokanta or meze.

How to order it

Order it as a cold starter or as part of a mixed zeytinyağlı plate with bread and yoghurt. It should be at room temperature. It is vegan; ask if you are unsure whether the kitchen has added meat, since a few do. One aubergine each as a starter, two as a light lunch.

Where it's done well

UK councils with the most i̇mam bayıldı specialists, by restaurant name, in our directory.

Restaurants near you

Search by postcode or use your location to find restaurants likely to serve i̇mam bayıldı near you.

Make it at home

Serves 4 · 90 min

Ingredients

4 small aubergines
150 ml olive oil, plus more for frying
3 onions, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, sliced
3 tomatoes, chopped
a large handful of parsley, chopped
1 tsp sugar, salt, black pepper
juice of half a lemon
100 ml water

Method

Peel the aubergines in stripes, salt them for 20 minutes, rinse and dry. Fry in olive oil over medium heat until soft and golden, then drain.
Cook the onions in 4 tbsp olive oil over low heat for 15 minutes until soft and sweet, add the garlic and tomatoes and cook for 10 more, then stir in the parsley, sugar, salt and pepper.
Slit the aubergines lengthways, open them and fill with the onion mixture.
Lay them in a wide pan, pour over the remaining olive oil, the water and lemon juice, cover and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes.
Cool completely in the pan and serve at room temperature with bread.

Be generous with the oil; that is the dish. It keeps for three days in the fridge and improves.

Related dishes

Meze

Meze are the small cold and hot dishes that open a Turkish meal: hummus, cacık, haydari, ezme, stuffed vine leaves, aubergine in several forms, fried liver, halloumi and a dozen more. A meze table is meant to be shared slowly with bread and rakı, and in the UK a spread of six or eight is a full meal for two. Meze is also the best way to eat well in a Turkish restaurant on a budget, and the clearest test of a kitchen's care.

Gozleme

Gözleme is a thin hand-rolled flatbread folded around a filling of cheese, spinach, potato or minced meat and cooked on a domed griddle called a sac until it is blistered and golden. It is village food, made by women rolling dough at a low table in front of you, and in the UK it is sold at Turkish cafés, markets and festivals. It is one of the cheapest and most satisfying things to eat, and it is at its best straight off the griddle.