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Lis-san El Qua-thi

Eggplant slices stuffed with seasoned ground meat, baked with tomato sauce.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Eggplant and tomato work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 651 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Lis-san El Qua-thi

Oven350°F for the eggplant slices, 450°F for the final bake
Time1 hour for the final bake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggplant

  1. Peel the eggplant and trim off the top and bottom.

  2. Stand the eggplant upright on a cutting board and slice it vertically into 1/8" thin slices.

  3. Sprinkle the slices generously with salt and place them in a strainer for about 1 hour.

  4. Rinse the salted eggplant slices to remove excess salt and drain them to dry.

  5. Heat about 4 tablespoons of corn oil in a frying pan.

  6. Fry the eggplant slices in batches, turning once to brown both sides, being careful not to burn.

  7. Add more oil as needed.

  8. Drain the cooked eggplant slices on paper towels.

  9. (Optional) Place the eggplant slices on baking sheets lined with foil and brushed with corn oil.

  10. Bake at 350°F for about 20–30 minutes until browned, turning halfway.

Stuff and roll

  1. Mix the ground meat, finely minced onion, salt, and pepper together.

  2. Divide the meat mixture into sausage-shaped portions 1" thick and 2" long.

  3. Place a portion of the meat stuffing at one end of an eggplant slice and wrap the eggplant around it.

  4. Arrange the wrapped eggplant rolls in a baking dish and, if desired, layer tomato slices on top.

Make the sauce and bake

  1. In a saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of oil and sauté the diced onions until soft.

  2. Add the chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper, and turmeric.

  3. Stir in the tomato sauce, beef or chicken stock, and lemon juice to taste.

  4. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

  5. Pour the sauce over the rolls in the baking dish.

  6. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour (or until done) at 450°F.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

620Calories
64 gProtein
21 gFat
47 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 13 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Chicken100g cooked165
Corn Oil1/2 cup kernels (82g)77
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Eggplant1 cup cubed (82g)35
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Turmeric1 tsp ground (3g)9
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Stuffingnot in our table0
Meatnot in our table0
Saucenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Eggplant + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together651 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Corn + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Tomato + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggplant
Its thin slices soften and brown in oil, then wrap around the filling to hold it together.
Lean ground meat
Forms the savory filling that cooks through inside the wrapped eggplant rolls.
Tomato sauce
Adds body and moisture to the sauce that cooks the rolls.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the tomato-based sauce.

The step that matters

Salting and draining the eggplant. Salt draws out moisture and bitterness from the slices; rinsing and drying them well before frying keeps them from absorbing excess oil and turning soggy.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (eggplant, corn, meat, onion, sauce, beef, lemon):

  1. Okrafits about as well
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against eggplant, corn, meat, onion, sauce, beef, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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