Greek Candied Baby Aubergine Spoon Sweet (Melitzanaki Glyko)

Melitzanaki glyko surprises almost everyone encountering it for the first time, since it takes aubergine, a vegetable firmly associated with savoury cooking across this entire site, and turns it into something fully sweet: whole baby aubergines, boiled tender, each one pierced and fitted with a single blanched almond, then slowly candied in a clove-scented syrup until dark, glossy and genuinely delicious.

This works because very young, small aubergines have a mild, almost neutral flesh before they develop the vegetable's more assertive bitter notes, giving the sugar syrup something genuinely receptive to work with rather than fighting against a strong existing flavour.

The almond tucked inside each little aubergine is both a practical touch, helping it hold its shape through the long candying process, and a lovely surprise once you bite through the soft, sweet flesh to find it.

Key preparation steps

1. Peel small baby aubergines partially, leaving stripes.
2. Boil in lime water or several changes of water until tender but intact.
3. Pierce each one and insert a blanched almond.
4. Candy slowly in clove-scented syrup.

Choosing and preparing the aubergines

Genuinely small, young baby aubergines are essential, no more than four to five centimetres long, since larger ones have already developed tougher flesh and more bitterness. Peel each one partially, leaving alternating stripes of skin, which helps them hold together through the long cooking ahead, and boil gently in water with a squeeze of lemon until just tender, taking care not to let them fall apart.

Studding with almonds

Once cooled slightly, make a small slit in each aubergine and insert a single blanched almond, pushing it in so it sits inside the flesh rather than poking out. This is both traditional and practical, since the almond helps the little aubergine hold its shape through the long candying simmer.

The long candying process

Simmer the prepared aubergines gently in a sugar syrup flavoured with whole cloves and a little lemon juice for a genuine hour to ninety minutes, until they have turned a deep, dark colour and absorbed the syrup fully, becoming properly candied rather than merely coated. This is not a quick process, and the aubergines need real time to take on both the sweetness and the syrup's dark, fragrant colour.

What matters in this dish