This Persian stew of tomatoes and spiced eggplant is typically made with lamb or beef, but it’s faster and just as savory without meat. If you’re using dried limes, puncture them with a knife to further release their unique tangy and musky flavor into the stew. Lime juice isn’t a perfect substitute, but it adds a hit of much-needed, brightening acidity.
Recipe information
Yield
4 Servings
Ingredients
8–9
6
1
1
¼
¼
3
3
Preparation
Step 1
Heat 6 Tbsp. oil in a large Dutch oven or other heavy pot over medium-high. Working in batches, cook eggplant in a single layer, adding another 1 Tbsp. oil if pan looks dry, until deeply browned, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to paper towels; season with salt.
Step 2
Add remaining 2 Tbsp. oil to same pot and cook onion over medium-high, stirring occasionally, until softened and browned around the edges, 8–10 minutes. Sprinkle turmeric and cinnamon over and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomato paste and cook, stirring, until slightly darkened in color, about 2 minutes. Add tomatoes; cook, still stirring, until tomatoes have burst and mixture is very thick, 7–9 minutes.
Step 3
Nestle eggplant into sauce and season lightly with salt. Pour in 5 cups water; bring to a simmer. Pierce dried lemon omani with a paring knife and add to pot. (If using lime juice instead, add when dish is finished cooking.) Cook, gently stirring occasionally, until thickened and eggplant is almost creamy in texture, 40–50 minutes.
Step 4
Divide rice among bowls; ladle stew over. Top with parsley and yogurt and serve with flatbread.
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Reviews (55)
Back to TopI used the recipe that was written in the magazine and found it bland. Come to the website and see that this lists 5 cups of water instead of the 6 cups listed in the magazine. Could've been better but this was edited poorly.
Anonymous
Chicago IL, USA (MDW)
10/9/2022
Delicious recipe and one I've already made a few times. I'm sure it's great as is, however the cook in me can't help but to add spices I feel would go well with it. I always add cumin, garlic, paprika, harissa, and sometimes ground beyond/impossible beef and/or chickpeas and it's fantastic. The only downside is how much oil the eggplant slices soak up when you fry, next time I will try other's suggestion to spray them with oil and bake them to soften it.
Hector M
Napa, CA
2/25/2021
Really easy and delicious, with minimal ingredients. Next time I'd add garlic and use less water or cook longer to get a slightly thicker consistency. We served it over basmati rice with sautéed kale on the side.
Lauren
Portland, OR
12/18/2020
YUM. I was surprised this had so much flavor with so few spiced. I let mine go for a little longer to get a really nice stew consistency. I couldn't find double concentrated tomato paste, so I used a regular can of tomato paste. I served with a Persian spiced snapper and basmati rice. I will most definitely be making this again, especially next summer when my garden comes in!
Rebecca Q
Indianapolis
11/18/2020
I made this last night - followed the suggestions of other reviewers and added: 1 clove garlic, stock instead of water, a pinch of red pepper flake, 1/3 tsp of cinnamon, roasted eggplants instead of frying, and cooked it with some ground beef I had left from a different recipe. It was tasty, but lacked some umami depth. I think more tomato paste or a bit of miso paste, as another reviewer suggested, would have improved this. The lemon omani were a great addition though!
Anonymous
Connecticut
10/27/2020
This was so delicious. It smelled great and tasted even better. It reminded me of our Lebanese eggplant dish butanjane (spelling is just a guess) with just a slight difference in the flavor profile. I followed the recipe with just a few differences in procedure, The eggplant was very long so I cut it in smaller chunks. The browning time per batch was less than called for but I had 3 batches.I only had double concentrate tomato paste but I don't think it changed the flavor much. The stew cooked much faster than the 40-50 minutes called for.- after about 25 minutes, the eggplant was tender- much longer and it would have been mush, and the sauce was perfect for a stew ( I used only about half the water called for). It was just right. The lime juice, parsley and yogurt were fine additions to a wonderful meal.
Daly City, California
10/27/2020
I had a very good experience with this recipe and would definitely make it again. For me it came out super flavorful — in fact, so intensely so that I absolutely wanted rice to balance the intensity for servings 2-end — and I'm someone who likes pretty intensely flavored food. Things I did, some based on previous comments, some not: 1. Used a mix of Japanese and Thai eggplants (? they were about the size of larger zucchini). 2. Peeled, then sweated the eggplant halves while I prepped the rest of the ingredients. 3. Fried, rather than roasted the eggplant halves in a wide, 5.5 quart saucepan that handled most in one batch AND used a Suvir Saran trick for roasting that kept the oil down. After I'd applied the first slick, which soaked up quickly, I sprinkled water from a Pyrex into the pan regularly to keep the eggplant from sticking as it browned. This seemed to work reasonably well. 4. Increased the spices a little (?), added a pinch of red pepper flakes, and some saffron per another recipe. 5. Added 1.5 cups of dried garbanzo beans that I'd cooked beforehand. Not sure what that cooked up to, but it was exactly the right amount. 6. Possibly a key to the flavor: rather than water, I used 5 c. of homemade, unsalted chicken stock. To finish it, I added the lime juice called for, and plenty of salt. I ate the first two bowls without rice, but found the flavor so intense that I made sure to have rice for the rest of the leftovers. Overall, very flavorful and delicious. I will almost certainly make it again when I can get a good price on eggplants.
Anchorage, AK
10/22/2020