Baba Ganoush
We made up this recipe after looking at a bunch of recipes on the web. It’s a delicious dip or sandwich spread and easy to make. It keeps well left over.
Servings 16 tablespoons
Ingredients
- 1 large eggplant (or 2 small eggplants)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- salt
- 2 large cloves garlic, coarsely chopped (it will go into blender later)
- 3 T. tahini (sesame seed butter)
- juice from 1 medium lemon (maybe a little more)
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves, destemmed (or 2 tbsp. dried) (optional)
Instructions
- Heat oven to 400 degrees.
- Slice the eggplant into slices 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.
- Salt the eggplant.
- If you don’t plan to remove the peel later, you can cut each slice into smaller pieces. (See note below about peeling vs not-peeling.)
- Put eggplant slices or pieces into a large bowl. Drizzle on the olive oil. Toss so the eggplant is lightly coated with the oil. You can add more oil if you wish.
- Spread into a roasting pan. If you left larges slices, lay one slice deep. If you cut into smaller pieces, spread out evenly.
- Roast till golden brown. Careful not to burn. If you left large slices, turn to roast both sides. If you cut into smaller pieces, just stir every 5 minutes or so till golden brown.
- Remove hot eggplant from the pan and wrap with aluminum foil.
- Leave in the foil for about 10 minutes to steam and soften a bit more.
- If you left larger slices, peel the skin off of each slice. (Use your fingers or a knife.)
- Put the roasted eggplant and all the other ingredients into a blender.
- Blend till mixed and creamy. If it is too thick, add a little olive oil.
- Taste and blend in more salt or lemon juice or garlic or oil or tahini or parsley if you wish.
- Serve with pita bread or dipping vegetables or chips.
Notes
Note about peeling vs. not-peeling:
We’ve found it’s a lot easier and faster to roast smaller pieces and to leave the peel on. The texture and taste is fine. Might even be healthier. But it’s not a lot of trouble to peel if you leave the eggplant in large slices while roasting, as described above.