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Egyptian Baba Ganoush Recipe
Baba ganoush is a delicious, healthy vegetarian dish eaten ubiquitously across Egypt and elsewhere.
A blended, smoky paste of aubergine (that’s Eggplant if you’re reading this in North America), tahini, garlic, lemon and herbs, versions of the dish can be fond across North Africa, the Middle East, Turkey, Greece and increasingly on supermarket shelves just about every where else.
If you’re travelling in Egypt, you will more than likely experience baba ganoush as one of a number of starters known as collectively as Mezze and served together in small portions like Spanish Tapas.
These may also include hummus, tabouleh, zabladi, and falafel. That said, baba ganoush also makes an excellent accompaniment to meat, fish, rice or simply served on it’s own with some warm pita bread.
Baba ganoush is easy to prepare and well worth the effort.
Time to table: 2 hours
Ingredients for Egyptian Baba Ganoush Recipe
2 x medium size aubergines
2 x table spoons lemon
2 x table spoon of Olive Oil
2 x cloves crushed garlic
3 x tablespoons tahini paste
1 x sprig parsley
1 x pinch chili powder
Equipment:
1 x electric blender or stab mixer
Directions
1) Prick the aubergines several times with a fork before holding them over a gas flame.
Singeing the vegetables in this way gives the dish its characteristic smoky flavour. If you have an electric stove top you can achieve a similar effect by charring them over the red hot hobs.
Do this for approximately five minutes until the skins are evenly charred all over.
2) Place the charred aubergines into an over proof dish and cook in a pre heated oven for 45 minutes until the insides have become entirely soft (and mushy).
3) Allow the aubergines to cool and then peel off the skin and scoop the insides into a bowl along with the other ingredients listed above.
4) Blend the ingredients to form a smooth paste.
5) Decorate with a few additional parsley leaves and serve.
Optional
The appearance and texture of baba ganoush can vary from country to country.
In Palestine for example it is not uncommon to add yoghurt into the mix.
The Lebanese however prefer to use pomegranate juice instead of tahini and then decorate the dish with the fruits seeds.
Elsewhere one can find combinations of all of the above that may or may not also include chick peas, tomatoes or cucumber.
The thickness of the dip can also be altered to taste, from total puree as suggested in this recipe to something more closely representing slightly mashes aubergine.
The smoky taste acquired in this Egyptian baba ganoush recipe is derived from the process of charring the skin before cooking it in the oven.
The longer you do this for, the more intensely smoky your finished product will be.
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