Total time: less than 15 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Side or main dish
This is the stuffed eggplant recipe that is often served as a side dish with grilled lamb chops or a roast shoulder of lamb. However you can also add some cooked cubed or ground lamb to the basic purée to create the traditional Turkish dish called hünkar begendi, or "the Sultan approved." This refined and delicate eggplant purée requires careful preparation: after all, it is associated with Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, who fell in love with the dish during a visit to Sultan Abdülaziz.

You can adapt the recipe by varying the spices to your taste or adding some finely diced tomato.

Presentation
Instead of peeling the eggplant once it is cooked, split it lengthwise and scoop out the flesh with a spoon. Serve the purée in the hollowed out eggplant.