Recipe: Oven-Baked Beef Kebab with Eggplant
Enjoy this personal twist on a traditional family dish that’s fun to assemble and easy to bake! They’ll come out moist and flavorful every time!
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 2 eggplants
- 18-20 fingerling potatoes
- 1/2 onion
- 1 tsp. Aleppo red pepper
- 1 tsp. mint
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 cup bulgur #1
- 4-5 mini bell peppers
- 1 bunch fresh mint for garnish
Sauce
- 1 tsp . Olive oil
- 1/2 onion
- 1 tbls. tomato paste
- 1 tbls. red pepper paste
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp. Sugar
- 2 tsp. dried mint
- 2 cups water
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Peel the eggplant (I prefer Japanese eggplants) in just three sections (don’t need to peel the entire skin)
- Cut the eggplants just over an inch wide
- Optional: Lightly season eggplant slices with salt and grill. You may also fry them or simply add them to the dish raw.
- Chop half the onion (the other half will be used for the sauce).
- Add the chopped onion to the ground beef in a large bowl
- Add bulger, salt, Aleppo pepper and dried mint to the beef
- Mix all ingredients well by hand
- Chop the other half of the onion
- Heat very little oil to a frying pan and add the chopped onion
- Add salt, tomato paste, red pepper paste, dried mint, water and sugar
- Whisk all ingredients together, when sauce starts bubbling, remove from heat
- Cut the edges of the fingerling potatoes so that they are the same length as the slices of eggplants.
- Assemble the dish by layering the bottom of the baking dish with some of the sauce (Just enough to cover the bottom).
- Make small meat balls with the beef mixture and place around the pan, alternating between beef, eggplant and potatoes.
- Add the remainder of the sauce on top of the diesh
- Slice the baby bell peppers and add to the top of the dish.
- Cover with foil, bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.
- Uncover and bake for another 20 minutes.
- Garnish with fresh mint and serve!
Shushan Darzian is the founder and owner of Ladybugs Catering & Events. Her passion for food, presentation and exquisite detail drive her mission to provide outstanding service for her clients. As a former educator, she is committed to life-longing learning and loves to travel. She resides in Southern California with her husband and two sons.
