TG Gourmet

Hünkar beğendi ("the sultan approved") is a classic Ottoman dish of tender lamb stewed with tomatoes, onion, and peppers, served over beğendi — a silky purée of fire-roasted eggplant folded into a milk-and-butter béchamel with grated kaşar cheese. Smoky, creamy, and rich, it is one of Turkey's most celebrated palace recipes.

Some Turkish dishes are weeknight workhorses. Hünkar beğendi is the opposite: it's the dish you cook when you want the table to go quiet for a moment. A spoon breaks through a pool of pale, smoke-scented eggplant cream, meets a chunk of lamb that has simmered until it barely holds together, and drags both through a glossy tomato sauce. It tastes like something invented in a palace kitchen — because, by every account, it was.

This post is part of our Turkish recipes guide, where hünkar beğendi sits firmly in the "special occasion" chapter. The good news: despite its royal résumé, the recipe asks for patience more than skill. If you can brown meat and stir a béchamel, you can put the Sultan's Delight on an American dinner table — and we'll point you to every Turkish pantry item you need along the way, the same staples we've been shipping to Turkish kitchens across the US since 2003.

Key Takeaways

• Hünkar beğendi has two components: a slow-simmered lamb and tomato stew, and beğendi — smoky charred eggplant beaten into a kaşar-cheese béchamel.
• The name means "the sultan liked it"; the most famous origin story involves Sultan Abdülaziz and Empress Eugénie of France in 1869.
• The single most important step is charring the eggplants until the skins blacken — that smoke is the soul of the dish.
• Real kaşar cheese makes the beğendi taste authentic; a good aged provolone or mild kashkaval is the closest substitute.
• Total time is about 2¼ hours, most of it hands-off simmering — and the stew reheats beautifully the next day.

Why Is Hünkar Beğendi Called the "Sultan's Delight"?

Hünkar is an old Ottoman title for the sultan; beğendi simply means "he liked it." Put together, the name is a verdict: the sultan tasted it, and the sultan approved.

Which sultan? Here the stories multiply, as they always do with palace food. One tradition points back to Sultan Murad IV in the 17th century. The more famous tale is set in 1869, when Empress Eugénie of France — wife of Napoleon III — visited Sultan Abdülaziz at Beylerbeyi Palace on the Bosphorus. The empress was reportedly so taken with the eggplant cream served beneath her lamb that she asked her own chef to learn the recipe. The Ottoman palace cook, the story goes, refused to hand over measurements, protesting that he cooked "with his eyes and his heart," not with scales. Historians quibble over the details, and honestly, no one can prove exactly which version is true — but the dish's palace pedigree itself is well documented, and the legend has traveled with the recipe for over 150 years.

What matters for your kitchen is what the legend encodes: this is refined food. The eggplant isn't just mashed; it's charred, cleaned, and beaten into a French-style béchamel — a technique that itself hints at the Ottoman court's 19th-century love affair with European kitchens. East meets West in a single copper pan.

What Ingredients Do You Need for Hünkar Beğendi?

This recipe serves 4 generously. Everything divides into two teams: the stew and the beğendi.

Stock the palace pantry in one order. Kaşar, Turkish tomato paste, spices, and more are all waiting in our Turkish grocery collection — and orders over $100 ship free, so the sultan's shopping list travels well.

How Do You Make the Turkish Lamb Stew?

1. Sear the lamb. Melt the butter with the olive oil in a heavy pot over medium-high heat. Pat the lamb cubes dry and brown them in batches, 2–3 minutes per side, until deeply golden. Don't crowd the pot — steam is the enemy of flavor here. Set the meat aside.
2. Build the base. In the same pot, soften the onion in the drippings for 5 minutes, scraping up the browned bits. Add the garlic and green pepper and cook 2 minutes more, until the kitchen smells unmistakably Turkish.
3. Add paste and tomatoes. Stir in the tomato paste and fry it for a full minute — this deepens its sweetness. Add the grated tomatoes and cook until the mixture thickens and the oil starts to separate at the edges, about 5 minutes.
4. Simmer low and slow. Return the lamb with its juices. Add the bay leaf, thyme, black pepper, salt, and enough hot water to barely cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce to the laziest possible simmer, cover, and cook 75–90 minutes, until the lamb yields to a spoon.
5. Reduce the sauce. Uncover for the last 15 minutes so the sauce reduces to a glossy, spoon-coating consistency. Taste and adjust the salt. The stew should be rich, not soupy — it needs to sit proudly on the purée, not flood it.

How Do You Make Beğendi, the Smoky Eggplant Purée?

1. Char the eggplants. Prick each eggplant a few times with a knife. Char them whole directly over a gas flame or under a hot broiler, turning with tongs, 15–20 minutes, until the skins are blackened all over and the eggplants have collapsed. This is not optional charring — you want blistered, papery, genuinely burnt skin. The smoke underneath is what makes beğendi taste like Istanbul instead of like cream of eggplant soup.
2. Clean and drain. Let them cool in a covered bowl for 10 minutes (the steam loosens the skin). Peel away every scrap of charred skin, trim the stems, and let the flesh drain in a colander for 10 minutes. Toss with the lemon juice to keep it pale.
3. Make the roux. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, add the flour, and whisk for 2 minutes until it smells toasty but hasn't colored.
4. Add eggplant, then milk. Add the drained eggplant to the roux and mash it in with a wooden spoon, beating until the flesh breaks down. Pour in the warm milk gradually, stirring constantly, and cook 4–5 minutes until you have a thick, smooth, pale cream. A few silky strands of eggplant are traditional; blitz briefly with an immersion blender only if you want it perfectly smooth.
5. Finish with kaşar. Off the heat, beat in the grated kaşar, a pinch of nutmeg, salt, and white pepper. Stir until the cheese melts into elastic, faintly nutty richness. Taste — it should be smoky first, cheesy second, and just barely sweet from the milk.

How Do You Serve Hünkar Beğendi?

Serve it the palace way: spread a generous pool of warm beğendi across each plate, make a shallow well, and spoon the lamb and its sauce into the center. Scatter with chopped parsley. Nothing else is required, though Turkish tables often add a shepherd's salad, warm bread for sweeping the plate clean, and a cold glass of ayran.

Both components can be made a day ahead — the stew actually improves overnight. Reheat the beğendi gently with a splash of milk to loosen it, and never microwave it on high unless you enjoy rubbery cheese. Leftover stew keeps 3–4 days refrigerated and freezes well for up to 3 months; the beğendi is best fresh or within a day.

What Are the Secrets to Restaurant-Quality Beğendi?

• Char past your comfort zone. Undercooked eggplant is the number-one failure. The skin should be black and flaking, the flesh completely limp.
• Drain, then drain again. Watery eggplant makes gluey beğendi. Ten minutes in a colander is the difference between silk and porridge.
• Warm milk, constant whisking. Cold milk hitting a hot roux is how lumps are born.
• Use real kaşar. Its gentle, buttery tang is the flavor Turkish diners expect. Mozzarella melts prettily but tastes of nothing; sharp cheddar shouts over the smoke.
• Season the stew boldly, the purée gently. The beğendi is the calm background; the lamb is the event.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I make hünkar beğendi with beef instead of lamb?

Yes — beef chuck is a common substitution both in Turkey and abroad. Cube it the same way and extend the simmer to about 2 hours. The dish loses a little of lamb's sweetness but stays true to itself. Cubed veal is another classic palace-era option.

What can I substitute for kaşar cheese?

The closest matches are kashkaval, a mild aged provolone, or a young gruyère. You want a cheese that melts smoothly with a buttery, faintly tangy flavor — nothing smoked, nothing sharp. That said, kaşar is one of the easiest Turkish cheeses to buy online in the US, so the real thing is within reach.

How do I get the smoky flavor without a gas stove?

Use your broiler on high: place whole, pricked eggplants on a foil-lined sheet as close to the element as possible and turn every 5 minutes until blackened and collapsed, 20–25 minutes total. An outdoor grill works even better. A drop of liquid smoke is an emergency trick, but charred skin gives a cleaner, more authentic result.

Can I make hünkar beğendi ahead of time?

The stew, absolutely — make it up to two days ahead; it deepens in flavor. The beğendi is best made close to serving, but you can char and clean the eggplant flesh a day ahead (toss it with lemon juice and refrigerate), then finish the béchamel in 15 minutes before dinner.

Is hünkar beğendi gluten-free?

Not as written — the béchamel uses wheat flour. For a gluten-free version, swap in a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend or 2 tablespoons of rice flour; the purée sets slightly softer but tastes nearly identical. The lamb stew itself contains no gluten.

What's the difference between beğendi and baba ghanoush?

Both start with fire-roasted eggplant, then part ways completely. Baba ghanoush is a cold Levantine meze built on tahini, garlic, and lemon. Beğendi is a warm Ottoman purée built on butter, milk, flour, and kaşar cheese — closer to a smoky mornay sauce than to a dip.

Cook it this weekend. Get the kaşar, tomato paste, and spices delivered to your door from our Turkish grocery collection, and pick up quality lamb from our chilled & frozen collection — free shipping on orders over $100. One evening of gentle simmering, and you'll understand exactly why the sultan approved.