Istanbul Imambayildisi (imambayildi)

Imambayildi is a well known vegetarian dish in Turkey. Here I'll give a recipe of the Antakya version. Ironically, in Antakya we call the name of this meal as 'Istanbul Imambayildisi', meaning 'Imambayildi of Istanbul'.

In Turkish cuisine we have a main group of vegetarian dishes which are cooked by olive oil. We name this dishes as 'zeytinyaglı', meaning 'with olive oil'. This is a classical recipe of this type. A summer meal:

Ingredients
1 kg aubergine
1 kg tomatoes
1 root garlic
1 onion
1 full spoon dry peppermint
1/2 cups of olive oil
salt

1. Peel aubergines, in a stripped way and cut into four pieces vertically.
2. Fry aubergines in olive oil. Using olive oil for frying is one of the musts of this dish.
3. Peel the tomatoes and cut into small pieces.
4. Put tomatoes into a deep pan and cook until all its juice is gone.
5. Cut onion and garlic into pieces.
6. Add fried augergines, onion and garlic into tomatoes and let them boil for 5 minutes at low heat. Don't forget to add salt.
7. Serve with dry peppermint. This is also a must.

That's all.