My Cookbook: Souk to Table 
Mediterranean Eggplant Casserole (Kafta Bil Sanieh)
The toughest question to answer for a food blogger is “what’s your favorite food?”. I mean… we blog about food for a reason. We love all of it. BUT if you were to ask me I’d probably mention this Mediterranean Eggplant Casserole also known as Kafta Bil Sanieh in Arabic. Also known as Tapsi Betenjan in Iraq. The BEST dish ever, and let me tell you why.
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What is Kafta Bil Sanieh?
This Mediterranean Eggplant Casserole is a layered casserole dish that is baked in a delicious tomato sauce. It starts off with a layer of perfectly seasoned Kafta or beef patties, followed by a layer of potatoes, eggplant, onions, peppers, and finally tomatoes. All the layers are pre-cooked and then stacked on top of each other to bake together in harmony and soak up that beautiful tomato sauce. The actual translation of “kafta bil sanieh” is kafta in a tray.
What I love most about this dish is the fact that it doesn’t use any spices (aside from cumin in the Kafta) and mainly lets the vegetables shine. Baking the vegetables together gets all their flavors melting into each other and it’s just pure goodness. You could consider this the casserole cousin of Dawood Basha with it’s similar flavours and ingredients. I make this dish about once a week because it’s my husbands favorite!
Adjustments for a healthier cooking method
This eggplant casserole is quite popular in the Middle East, and there’s not one way of making it (although I do implore you to try mine – you won’t regret it). Here are a few notes:
- The various vegetables in this casserole are traditionally individually fried rather than baked. However to keep things healthier and also much more efficient in the kitchen, I’ve been baking them for the longest time and I love the results!
- You can easily make this vegetarian (and I very often do) and it’ll taste so good too. It makes it a lot faster because you can just skip the kafta step, and also convenient if you don’t have any ground beef. You can even modify and make my Lebanese Moussaka and add in chickpeas.
- If you’re not a big fan of eggplant (how shocking!) you can replace it with zucchini. I often do this if I’m making it for my sister
- You can also skip adding the potatoes, although they really are one of my favorite elements. But if you’re keeping it lighter, it may be a good idea
How to serve this Mediterranean eggplant casserole
The best way to serve this is with rice. I love spooning the juices over the rice and getting a piece of everything on my plate. But you can also enjoy this with some pita bread or on its own. Its quite a filling dish because it has protein, vegetables and carbs.
If you end up making this, you absolutely have to tell me what you think! This dish is so special to me and I can’t wait to see your remakes.
For more Eggplant recipes, check out:
Mediterranean Eggplant Casserole (Kafta Bil Sanieh)
Ingredients
For the Kafta:
- 1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
For the Casserole:
- 3 eggplants
- 3 potatoes
- 1 onion
- 1 red pepper
- 2 tomatoes
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil , divided
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
For the Tomato Sauce:
- 2 cups tomato sauce
- 2 cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses, optional
Instructions
- Start by preheating your oven to 400F
- To make the Kafta, mix the ground beef with the spices and shape into small circular shapes. Bake on a lined baking sheet for 18 minutes at 400F. Remove and set aside
- Peel the eggplant lengthwise every other stripe to create a zebra patter and chop into 1/2 inch circles. Mix evenly with the half cup of oil and 1 teaspoon of salt and bake them on a parchment lined sheet for 40 minutes
- Peel and chop the potatoes into 1/2 inch circles. Mix with 2 tablespoons of oil and half a teaspoon of salt and bake on a lined baking sheet for 40 minutes
- Meanwhile, slice the onion and red pepper into thin strips and saute together in a skillet on medium heat using 2 tablespoons of oil for about 7 minutes until softened and caramelized
- Slice the tomato into 1/4 inch circles
- When the kafta, eggplant, potato, onions and peppers are cooked through, it's time to assemble
- Using a deep 9x13 inch baking dish, assemble the first layer of Kafta, followed by potato and eggplant, placing them all on top of each other and evenly filling the dish
- Then add the layer of onions and peppers, and finally top with the tomato slices by placing them evenly around the dish
- In a bowl, mix all the tomato sauce ingredients together and pour over the dish
- Bake covered for 45 minutes and then broil uncovered for an additional 15 minutes
- Serve with rice and enjoy!
Notes
- If you don't like eggplant, you can still make this dish and replace it with zucchini instead
- To make this dish vegetarian, you can skip the Kafta
soooo gooood!!! make it now!
This was so delicious!!!! The flavor is amazing, and I can’t wait to make it again!!
So glad you enjoyed a recipe that is close to my heart!!
This recipe takes time to bake the individual parts and then bake again but it was SO worth it. Absolutely will make again! I made a few adjustments to suit me. Sweet green pepper not red pepper, a large jar of good quality Italian marinara, only one cup of water. Once assembled, I cooked about 50 minutes at 350degrees. I used fresh eggplant, tomatoes and peppers from my garden. I served it without rice because it already has potatoes in it. Topped it with grated parmesan at the table. Side dish was a Greek cucumber salad also using garden vegetables.
I made this dish for my middle eastern boyfriend. He said eggplant casserole was his favorite. I am no cook but decided to tackle this dish. He absolutely loved it. He said his mother who lives in Iraq didn’t even make it this good. It’s a very easy recipe to follow and although it took me awhile to do it right – it still came out amazing! I will definitely be using this recipe again. It’s so good! You won’t be disappointed.
Wow that’s high praise Alisa! I am so glad your boyfriend enjoyed it!
This was delicious!! We devoured it!
So glad to hear that Fatimah! 🙂
You say to form the ground beef into small circular shapes, but do mean the meat patties supposed to be flat like tiny hamburgers or more like small meatballs? Can you give a size suggestion for them – about how many parties should we get out of 1 1/2 lbs? Also, not sure what you mean by slicing the onions into strips. Do you mean thin rounds or to you mean chopped into chunks! Thanks!
Hi Gail! I meant into small hamburger shapes, a bit smaller than your palm. For 1.5 lbs you’ll get about 8-10 patties I would say. As for the eggplant, it first needs to be peeled, but not all of it. So you’re going to peel a strip away and skip the next, then peel another strip, and skip the next (down the length of the eggplant), so you end up with a zebra pattern. I will try and add some photos for you! Then you need to slice into circles so cut right across the eggplant into 3/4 inch circles. Hope that helps.
This was SO GOOD! I did have to omit the eggplant this time but overall amazing!! I love that the kafta is just meat and spices. no parsley and onions to chop up 😅
Exactly – that’s my favourite part about the Kafta prep for this dish! So glad you enjoyed it 🙂
I meant to post this earlier. On new Years day we enjoyed this amazing casserole! ((the first meal of 2021) ! Since I am not in favor of eggplant, I made it without. I love that you suggest other ways to make your dishes. My husband ended up grilling the beef outside and then we assembled the dish just like you instructed.
I can honestly say that it was the most delicious, tender, flavorful meal that I have made! I cant wait to make it again. Another note, it was so relaxing to put the layers together and bake it all in one pan. Thank you!
Delicious! A little bit of extra work but well worth the effort.
Getting bored dealing with staying home and social distancing because
Of COVID. So am trying out recipes from different countries instead of my usual
standbys and my husband is thrilled. He enjoys eating and loved this recipe.
Will definitely make it again.
Thank you.👌
That’s so great to hear Judy – so glad you and the husband enjoyed it. Thanks so much for the feedback. And I totally hear you on the boredom. I’m glad you found something positive to do with your time. 🙂
Wow this version was better than my mums… which is pretty hard to beat! I just swapped the tomato sauce for passata and it was beautiful. I’m so glad I found your blog, I’ve been looking for Iraqi recipes written in English for so long and I’m so excited to try all of yours! In fact, I making your maqluba for dinner tonight 🙂
Thanks so much for the great feedback Shahad! That’s high praise! I hope you enjoy the Maqluba – let me know how that goes! 🙂
Easy and super flavorful!
So…growing up, I hated eggplants…but then I visited an Iranian friend’s home, and his mum served us Tapsi Betanjaan that tasted so good that I began to question all my life decisions before that day! lol!
Your version looks wonderful, Amina! I’m adding it to my list of things to cook! 🙂
Awesome – can’t wait to hear what you think! And… I’m so glad this comment ended on an eggplant-loving note. Otherwise I wasn’t sure we could be friends.
This has got to be one of my favourite recipes on the blog!
It is amazing on it’s own or over parboiled garlic rice.
Thanks for sharing Amina!