Assyrian Pickled Eggplant

4 from 3 votes

Mom's Assyrian recipe for pickling eggplant.

Prep Time30

Total Time32

Course: Appetizers, Side Dish

Cuisine: Assyrian, Middle Eastern

Servings: servings

Calories: 59kcal

Trim the eggplant stems and make a long slit down the center of each eggplant. Make sure it's deep enough to stuff, but don't go all the way through.
Place eggplant in a small pot, and cover with four cups of boiling water, mixed with ½ teaspoon of salt. Cover and allow to soften for 20-30 minutes. The goal is to get the eggplant soft enough to stuff, but still firm.
Meanwhile, peel and chop three cloves of garlic. Mince three of the serranos and add to the garlic. Chop the parsley, making sure to save some of the longest strands to tie the eggplant shut, after stuffing.
Mix ½ teaspoon of salt into the stuffing mixtures. Once the eggplant is ready, rinse with cold water and gently stuff.
Tie each eggplant closed with a few strands of parsley stems. Arrange the eggplant into the sterilized jar. Add the remaining cloves of garlic and serrano peppers.
Bring vinegar, water, sugar, and remaining salt to a boil, stirring until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Pour this mixture over the eggplant. Seal and refrigerate for two weeks to allow the eggplant to pickle.

If you find it hard to tie the eggplant with the parsley stems, you can use toothpicks.
If you don't like spicy food, you can leave out the chili peppers, or replace them with less spicy peppers.
Store the pickled eggplants in the fridge and consume them within a few months.