Serves: n/a
Approx cost: €0.90 – €1.50
Approx calories (per 1 tbsp): ~20
Approx preparation time: 30 minutes + ~1 hour cooling
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #0B0B61;”]Perhaps not many of you remember my first post on Baba Ghanoush, here – Late December, 2010 – I didn’t have a whole lot of visitors to my site back then 🙂 Anyway, I cobbled together a Baba Ghanoush back then which, though not bad, didn’t quite hit the mark. I’ve had some time to improve upon the recipe since then and so I thought what better than to do a little “redux”. The problem last time wasn’t that it was bad, it’s just that it pretty much blew you away with the strength of the lemon juice and the garlic. I like to add the yoghurt – it pads out the flavour and gives a slightly creamy, mild touch to the dip, but if you want to make it full on vegan then you can skip this as it’s absolutely not necessary. Best served up with chips, maybe a bowl of hummus (make sure you had the juice of one lemon to that too when blending – it really improves the flavour!) and you’ve got yourself a rocking snack! Although the cost of Aubergines can vary a lot depending where and when you are buying them, I was able to buy these 3 below for about €0.80, so not only is this delicious and quick but it’s also pretty damn cheap too!
Don’t forget – if you didn’t already do it, you can participate in my little competition to celebrate one year in blogging here. Enjoy the Baba Ghanoush, along with your sunday! 🙂
Ingredients
- 2 Good sized Aubergines (or 3 smaller ones)
- Juice from half a Lemon
- 3 cloves of Garlic
- 4 tbsps Olive Oil
- 2 tbsps natural Yoghurt
- 1 tbsp Tahini Paste
- 1 tsp ground Cumin
- Salt and Pepper
Instructions
- Start off by washing the aubergines and stabbing them all over with a fork. Place them under a hot grill, or directly on the burner of a gas stove, turning regularly until the skin is black, crackled and charred. The more charred the better as this will impart a great, smoky flavour to the aubergine flesh.
- Set the aubergines aside for 10 minutes or so and allow them to cool. Once they are more manageable peel off the skin and dump the flesh in a sieve to drain off any excess liquid. Place the aubergine flesh in to a food processor along with half of the lemon juice, the yoghurt, the tahini paste and half of the olive oil. Grind in some salt and pepper and blend until smooth.
- Heat a large pan on the stove. Transfer the mixture from the food processor bowl to the pan and start heating the Baba Ghanoush through. This will cook the garlic somewhat, significantly lowering the intensity, as well as allowing the aubergine flesh to absorb the flavours of both the garlic and lemon juice. Any remaining water from the aubergines will also be boiled away! Stir the mixture in the pan constantly until it is very hot – almost sizzling – at which point remove from the heat and transfer to a suitable bowl or container. Stir in the cumin and the remaining lemon juice and olive oil and allow to cool before enjoying! 🙂
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