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! 🙂
Aaahhh, you cheaaaaaaaaat!!! 😀
I've made baba ghanoush a few times back in Syria, and we don't make it like that! Because in Syria, the housewife who uses a food processor is classed as the one who rips off her husband; or, is lazy; or, is too modern; or, does not cook the traditional way!
To make the baba ghanoush, we use a pestle and mortar that is made from copper, it's golden in colour and it SOOOO HEAVY!!! You can push a disc out of your spine if you pick it up the wrong way…. So you see, we use THAT to grind the eggplants, and we don't use ovens (they're also modern), we use those portable gas thingies to cook and char the eggplants…
And we also add in very finely diced green capsicum! 🙂 Maybe I'll one day make it for you the traditional way and post it up… maybe…
BUT, even after all my rambling, I must say, that is the most gorgeous lookin' baba ghanoush I've ever seen……. which reminds me, do you know what baba ghanoush means? 😛
Fati, I don't want steal from Charles the pleasure to answer, so I'll just say I know what it means: I did some research while preparing my post 😉
hehehe 🙂 Glad you do… I just love this baba ghanoush Charles has made, it's making me really crave it right now!! I'd love to pop into your blog and check out the m'tabal you're making! 😀
Oh by the way Charles, put a huge grin after my first line in the 1st comment, it looks so mean and horrible without one 😉
Done! 🙂
I think I looked it up last time I made this – it means something like "The Imam fainted" or something, right?
It's good I'm not a Syrian housewife – it means I can use a food processor without fear of being labelled lazy! I guess it's the same for things like hummus – I don't know how I'd survive without my food processor 😀 What's the name of the giant pestle and mortar? I'd love to see a picture of one – sounds like quite the kitchen tool!
Apologies! It's made from brass, and it looks like this:
http://www.phisick.com/images/apoth/mortar-and-pe…
In Arabic it's called haawen, no clue in English, just pestle and mortar?
Charles, your baba ganouj looks fabulous! I am so ashamed I even didn't know you have posted it. I would have checked it, very curious to see your version, while I was posting mine., which is apparently called m'tabal/moutabal since yogurt is added (at least according to my Lebanese source). I love baba ganouj and make it quite often (with a food processor and oven of course!). How have you managed to make such beautiful, sunny photos in November???
Thanks Sissi – we were lucky that we had a couple of days of brillian sun and blue skys in amongst the grey, rainy filth which seems to be the norm these days! I have a bit of an addiction for this stuff, and hummus too. In the mall near my office there is a lunch place/sandwich shop type thing which used to sell two platters – one called "Lebanese Mezze" and another called "Greek Mezze". The Lebanese one had a big portion of hummus, big portion of baba ghanoush, some sort of spicy shredded carrot cooked in tomato (I think – I think it's Tunisian in origin actually, or maybe not… in any case if you know what it is, PLEASE tell me because it's delicious!) and some olives and pine nuts. Buying one of those with some bread was such an amazing lunch! The greek one had a HUGE block of feta cheese, stuffed vine leaves, a huge puddle of tarama and some of those pickled yellow chillis. Really good too!
Charles, spicy carrot cooked in tomatoes sounds really good! The sandwich shop sounds better than the regular kebab place (talking of which, the worst kebabs I have ever had are made in France and Switzerland: I have recently understood why, while watching a tv program about kebab places: the meat is thoroughly ground -with fat and skin – before being frozen and put to grill. In other countries kebabs have still real threads of meat, which means they are leaner and simply taste better, also because of spices and vegetables).
As for the translation of baba ganouj/ganoush, from my sources it means something like "spoiled dad" (I hope Fati will confirm!) and fainted Imam is I think another aubergine dish… although I'm not sure (I haven't had it).
We are strangely having excellent weather (today it was the first real Autumn day). I haven't put any coat yet. Wool cardigans are warm enough! (I hope it doesn't mean Winter will be particularly cold).
Ah, it's not really that good – €1,90 for a small pre-packaged side-salad. Bowl full of leaves, some grated carrot, one cherry tomato, some sweetcorn and a little sachet of dressing. They have a wide assortment of things, it's true, but I wouldn't say that the stuff is particularly high quality.
It's interesting what you say about the kebab meat – I just hate kebab meat and I've only had it once in England and once in France – I thought the taste difference was just "one of those things", but now you say that it makes sense because the taste in France is really bad. Usually I prefer chicken kebabs – I'll tell you another reason why they're so bad in France too, compared to England – because in France they use these… weird… long, fat breads – it's dense and thick, like ciabatta, and they don't serve cabbage with it. When you buy a kebab in England you'll get everything pushed inside a pita bread, LOADS of salad, cabbage, tomato, yellow pickled chillies, and then garlic sauce… Sooooo good!
Charles your timing is impeccable! I have recently started making my lunches based on Middle Eastern and Mediterranean foods and baba ghanoush is next on my list!!! Thank you! I'll let you know how it turns out. I think I'll plan it for next week. this week, I'm still using up leftover pumpkin. 😉
Hehe, leftover pumpkin. The joys of holiday seasons! I have to force myself to rein myself in over Christmas this year because we'll be leaving to go to Sweden (hopefully) for two weeks almost immediately afterwards, so no time to use leftovers at all! Hope you're able to try the dip – don't forget to cook it through a little with the garlic… really takes the edge off!
That is my favorite tip! I LOVE garlic. And a two week trip to Sweden sounds like so much fun! What a great holiday treat. I'd take that over leftovers any day. 🙂
Hehe, it'll be nice – we'll be going right up in the north of Sweden to visit my wife's parents over New Year's. It'll be my first time visiting in winter so I'm a little scared. It can get to -30 degrees Celsius so it will certainly be quite an experience… and I'll definitely have lots of photos to post! 😀
Made this for my lunches this week and just finished a plate of it with warm pitas! Soooo good. The only problem is that I'm having a really hard time stopping myself from going back to get more. This completely hit the spot! 🙂
Yay, glad you enjoyed it! Speaking of pitas, I should post my recipe for those too – they're a lot of fun to make, and SUPER easy!
This Baba Ghanoush looks amazing. You are making me so hungry right now its not even funny Charles lol.
Thanks Kay – Dips and Chips is never wrong – and so hard to resist 😀
Ive been looking for a good Baba Ghanoush recipe, Charles. The flavours really hit it for me. I would use a food processor too!
Hehe, rock on, food processor users! I'd rather spend my time eating, than preparing!
I would stop on the baking part to be honest, I really like baked aubergines! When I was a kid we used to grill different vegetables in the mild fire in the countryhouse, then we choped them and made a grilled salad with aubergines, peppers, tomatos. So tasty….
Hey Marianna, you can grill the eggplants until they're completely charred, it might take some time, but it works just as well 🙂 You'll need to get smaller ones because these big ones Charles has wouldn't cook all the way through I suppose… Never tried with ones that big 🙂
Thanks for the tip! I should try it some day, what stopped me before is that I wasn't sure that it will be tasty in the oven comparing to the fire. But I should definitely try )
I love aubergines so much – I have one of these grill pans, with ridges in them you know? – if you cut slices of aubergine and brush them with olive oil, a bit of salt, cook them in the pan… omg, it's like the most amazing thing in the world, and so simple! (like this!)
I have such pan yup. Did you try to add some mashed garlic on top for the taste?
I have before – sometimes I like to deep fry the aubergine in oil with loads of crushed garlic and salt. A Chinese restaurant in the centre of Paris does something similar – SO good!
I love the lighting in your last two photos Charles. So pure and natural. I have not made Baba Ghanoush myself but have enjoyed it many times at my sister's – I am going to forward your recipe to her as well as I know she will love it. There's so much goodness going on this recipe – full of whole, natural ingredients. Love that.
Thanks Kelly! If she wanted to share, I'd love to see how your sister makes hers too – I love trying variations and testing new things 🙂 Glad you liked the photo! We were lucky to have a couple of days of wonderful, warming sun in amongst the heavy rain we've had recently! 🙂
What a great idea to put yogurt into Baba Ghanoush. I like Baba Ghanoush – very few ingredients and it tastes great.
Thanks Biana – it's really very good, and the yoghurt gives a lovely hint of creaminess!
Baba Ghanoush looks so easy to make yet I haven't made it at home. I recently learned about "tahini" paste although I use a lot of sesame seeds in the kitchen. I should go find it and make Baba Ghnoush!
Hi Nami – if you're able to get some make sure to make some Hummus too! Squeeze in the juice from a lemon when blending… Sooooooo yummy!
Oh sure, but can you bend it like Beckham? Seriously, this is worth revisiting. Love all the photos. Great recipe.
I assure you I most certainly can't bend it like Beckham, alas – I'll sit on the sidelines and munch chips and this dip instead 😀
I'm sure you didn't have to improve the recipe too much, as I bet it was already delicious before, but this version does look/sound incredible. I just want to grab that chip in the dip out of my computer screen right now!
Hehe, thanks Caroline. This, chips, hummus, maybe a garlic cream-cheese and chive dip… Sounds a bit… un-classy, but seriously, that's my idea of a good evening 😀 Well, sure I can think of better things too, but you get my point 😀
Charles, I love baba ghanoush and did a post about it this summer. I love to do my eggplant on our grill outside in the summer. I let it cook until it totally soft. I mash it by hand after taking out the large pockets of seeds. I like your recipe that adds yogurt and can't wait to give it a try as it sounds delicious. Would you believe that the best I ever had was at a Lebanese restaurant just a short distance from the arc de triomphe in Paris.
Nice – I bet it tastes so good grilled outside. Stuff always tastes better when it's cooked in the open air, doesn't it? 😀 I find sometimes you can be lucky with aubergine in that the seeds are barely noticeable. Other times they make a real "crunch" in your mouth. Can you remember the name of this Lebanese restaurant in Paris? I'd love to give it a try!
Charles, looks like I missed out this post, eggplant is one of my favorite veggies and this looks awesome and also a very Happy blog Anniversary.
Thanks Sadhana, I love eggplant too – it's SO versatile and really meaty too!