Baba Ghanoush

Baba Ghanoush is an Arabic dish. It's made from roasted aubergine (egg plant to you American types) and seasonings and is so simple. Unfortunately it's one of those foods that isn't particularly photogenic (the fading light didn't help either). I apologise for that but it is amazingly tasty.



I don't have specific quantities for this one as the seasonings you add will depend on your personal taste and the size of aubergine you are using. It's open to a wide range of variation and I've shared some of these in the links below.

I used
1 medium aubergine
Lemon juice
Plenty of salt and pepper
1tbsp of tahini
A small clove of crushed garlic.

You need to bake your aubergine (prick it all over fisrt) in the oven until it's really soft (30 minutes + at 180C). When it's cooled enough to be able to handle it, you need to scrape the soft insides out of the skin and put them in a jug or bowl. Add the other seasonings and mash/puree (I used a stick blender to puree) and taste. Add more of whatever it needs and taste again.

If I was making this again, I'd use 2-4 aubergines for a higher yield. This was mostly an experiment as we'd never had it before but now I know that we like it I can make a larger batch.

Serve with pitta breads or flat breads, salad, falafels...whatever you like really. I think it'd be delicious spread insteasd of butter in a granary sandwich or roll with ham and salad. The possibilities are endless!

Dutch Girl Cooking has this recipe for a hummus and baba ghanoush mix. Beautiful step by step pictures too.

This recipe from the Merrilees Parker at the Good Food Channel uses natural yogurt and mint to lighten the dip up.

Finally this recipe from Vegetarian.About.com uses chili and lime to give the dip a mexican twist.