Khoresh Bademjan Recipe (Persian Eggplant Stew) (2024)

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Khoresh Bademjan or Bademjoon is a Persian Eggplant Stew with meltingly soft eggplants in a thick and tangy tomato based sauce, with pieces of meat to make it heartier.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

In Farsi (the Persian language):

• khoresh = stew
• bademjan – eggplants

So, Eggplant Stew

Yellow split peas are also sometimes added, and the dish is known as Gheymeh Bademjan, where minced meat is used instead of chunks of meat. Our recipe today is with just eggplants and meat.

Khoresh Bademjan is one of my favourite eggplant dishes, and I love nothing better than to have it with a plate of steamed rice. Having said that, the crunch of falling apart tahdeeg is simply incredible with the soft, practically falling apart aubergines.

My kids are all vegetarian, so when I cook this Persian eggplant stew for us, I make a meat version, and one with just the eggplants and chickpeas. So a vegan khoresh bademjan, which is also very traditional in Iran.

Tart flavours in Persian Cuisine

As with many Persian khoresh, or stews, Khoresh Bademjan has an underlying tart or sour flavour. This is achieved by adding any of the following:

• sour grapes (ghooreh), which are young unripe grapes
• sour grape juice (abghooreh)
• dried limes (limoo amani, click to read more), or failing all that
• plain and simple fresh lemon juice

I tend to go with limoo amani, finishing off with a quick squeeze of lemon juice, because I love that touch of bitter that they lend to the stew.

If you have friends growing grapes, just ask them for a handful of the young unripe ones to make your khoresh!

Khoresh Bademjan Recipe

The recipe itself is pretty straightforward, but it takes just a little bit of effort and time, as we salt and then grill the eggplants first. Although these days, many eggplant varieties don’t need salting.

Traditionally, in Khoresh Bademjan, the eggplants are fried. You know eggplants are like sponges when it comes to oil, they soak up far too much my comfort. So the best thing to do is to grill (broil) them or bake them in the oven first. We shall be grilling (broiling) them.

Or here is a cheat’s idea for the eggplants. Use shop bought pre grilled or roasted eggplants. These can be the plain old ones that are frozen, or the ones sold in jars as antipasto.

Like these jars below, the aubergine jar can just be seen in the back right. It doesn’t really interfere with the flavour of your khoresh. In fact, if anything, it deepens it.

What meat for your Khoresh?

Lamb is the preferred red meat in the Middle East. However, you can please yourself and go with what you like. I’m using small cubes of lamb here.

If you can get your hands on meat that’s on the bone, even better. Cut it up into bitesize pieces, but add the bone to the khoresh for added flavour.

And, you could even go with meatballs, which in my experience, makes it very attractive to kids!

Leg of lamb or shoulder of lamb is best for curries and stews, so those are the cuts you want to get, if you can.

What kind of eggplants should you use?

That’s completely up to you: large, medium, small, round – it depends on what you like and what you can get. For khoresh bademjan, I use medium eggplants, which slice up to about 5-6 pieces each; perfect for 4 – 6 people.

As mentioned above, these days, eggplants don’t really need to be salted anymore. However, I find that the extra step helps to season them and deepen the flavour.

Just bear in mind that many small eggplant varieties tend to be on the bitter side, so they most certainly need salting for a good 30 minutes.

Limoo Amani (Dried Persian Limes)

Click here to read more. Dried limes, whether brown or black are a very popular ingredient throughout the Middle East and have various names, depending on where you are or where the limes are from.

To use them, whether in today’s khoresh bademjan or any other stew, you simply crack them with the back of a knife to release the flavour, and add them to stews as they are. They soften upon cooking and become part of the stew’s filling.

Substitute: lemon juice, sumac, sour grapes, sour grape juice

Liquid Saffron (Bloomed Saffron)

Click here to read more, learn how to make it, and also for my YouTube video.

When you only soak the saffron in water,you are not utilising everything that this potent ingredient has to offer. You get the aroma, the flavour and the colour but the very substance of the saffron, to me, remains elusive when you leave it whole.

So how do we get to the inner beauty and magic of saffron and how do we make liquid saffron?

Easy, we crush those little guys in a pestle and mortar first,with just a tiny pinch of salt or sugar to aid the grinding, then we soak it in water.

Vegetarian Khoresh Bademjan

Is pretty easy to do. Half the time, when I’m cooking this for clients, I am asked to do one of each dish, meat version, and vegetarian version.

To make a vegetarian khoresh bademjan, just omit the meat, and add yellow split peas instead, which are traditional in this recipe, as mentioned above.

Use about 1 cup of yellow split peas, and follow the recipe below, adding the peas when you are meant to add the meat. Cook the peas for 30 minutes, then add the eggplants and finish up.

Yellow split peas do not need soaking.

That’s it, I hope you enjoy the recipe. If you are a fan of eggplants, you sure will!

Let’s get our aprons on!

More Persian Recipes on LinsFood

And with Nowruz, the Persian New Year coming up on the first day of spring, if you fancy more Persian recipes, check out the Middle Eastern and North African page, for must have recipes. Including Doogh, a traditional yoghurt drink served with meals, that’s also know as Ayran.

If you’re thinking along the lines of Ramadan recipes, you’ll find many on the Ramadan Recipes page, like this very comforting Haleem recipe.

If you like the recipe, don’t forget to leave me a comment and that all important, 5-star rating! Merci!

And if you make the recipe, share it on any platform and tag me@azlinbloor, and hashtag it #linsfood

Noushe jan | نوش جان

Lin xx