Silky Baba Ghanoush

We grew eggplant in our garden this year and I have found I love it!   The eggplant Parmesan was great, I made it two times in one week.  So I wanted another dish that involved eggplant, and you can't get any more "pure eggplant" than baba ghanoush since it's eggplant puree, similar to hummus.

Inspiration

Slender Kitchen baba ganoush (eggplant dip)

This recipe normally calls for tahini (sesame paste), since I had to recently throw my super-expired jar out, I figured I would replace it in the same way I did when I made homemade hummus, by adding sesame seeds and sesame oil, but in this recipe it didn't work so great.

Ingredients

• 1 eggplant
• 1Tb sesame seeds
• 1Tb sesame oil (I wouldn't use this, made it too "Asian")
• 2Tb lemon juice
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tb EVO
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Fresh black pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  

spritzed eggplant in the oven.

The recipe calls for throwing the whole eggplant in the oven, but I was afraid it might blow up even after poking it with a fork, so I cut them into quarters lengthwise and put them on a baking sheet.   I thought they might need a little help to brown, so I added a spritz of coconut oil.

Browned eggplant.

Roast the eggplant for 20-25 minutes or until it's soft and gushy.  Scoop the flesh out of the skin and put the eggplant innards into a food processor with the rest of the ingredients.    Process until smooth.

Eggplant puree.

Verdict

Creamy and good, but too Asian.

I liked it, but the sesame oil was too much, it was quite "Asian" in flavor.  I've already browned my eggplant for my next batch and I will definitely leave out the sesame oil.  I eat the dip with slices of red bell pepper, it's a fresh and healthy snack and surprisingly quite filling.