We were blesssed to get a private cooking lesson from Gülevren last night.  It was a unique treat watching superwoman.  She cook 5 dishes for a 10 person dinner, while teaching us and watching the kids.  Here’s her Ali Nazik Kebab dish, with its bold tangy meaty topping and cool, smooth eggplant base.

Ingredients:

Yogurt Eggplant base:

• 4 medium Italian eggplants
• 1 T salt
• 3 T olive oil
• 2 c thick yogurt

Kebab topping:

• 8 Morningstar Vegetarian Sausage Patties
• 2 small red peppers, seeded and diced
• 2 T olive oil
• 4 T tomato paste
• 1/2 t salt

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.

Slice each eggplant in half.  Poke holes in the eggplant with a fork.  Brush olive oil onto the cut side of each eggplant.  Place cut side down on a cookie sheet.  Bake the eggplant for 40 minutes.  Allow to cool, peel the eggplants.

At the same time, bake the sausage patties on a greased cookie sheet for 12 minutes.  Allow to cool, then pulse the patties to a ground beef consistency in the food processor.

Pulse the eggplant in a food processor until it is mushy but still a little chunky.  Heat the remaining 3 T of olive oil in a medium non-stick pan on medium high heat.  Add the eggplant and 2 t salt.  Stir-fry for 2 minutes.  Remove to a bowl, and cool to room temperature.  Mix in the yogurt.

Heat 2 T of olive oil in a medium non-stick pan on medium high heat.  Add the diced red peppers and tomato paste and stir-fry for 4 minutes.  Add the ground sausage patties and 1/2 t salt and continue to stirfry for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and set aside.

Place the eggplant-yogurt mixture on the bottom of the serving bowl.  Add the veggie meat-pepper mixture on top.  Serve with bread.