Home Appetizers Baba Ghanoush: a smoky, wonderful dip

Baba Ghanoush: a smoky, wonderful dip

by Ann
17 comments

Baba Ghanoush: a creamy wonderful garlic eggplant dip

If you have never had Baba Ghanoush, you should try it. It’s a creamy, garlicky, silky smooth dip somewhat akin to hummus in flavor, but lighter and smoky tasting and oh so wonderful. It’s made of eggplant, but if someone didn’t tell you it was made of eggplant, you would never guess.


I used the smaller, thinner long skinny Japanese eggplant for this Baba Ghanoush. If you use the larger, globe-style eggplant, you will want to adjust the other ingredients because you’ll end up with more pulp. After grilling your eggplant, measure the pulp and multiply the rest of the ingredients by the number of cups of eggplant you have.

Baba Ghanoush: a creamy, smoky wonderful dip

Baba Ghanoush

  • 3 Japanese eggplant (yielding about 1 cup of pulp after roasting)
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled
  • juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 1 Tablespoon tahini
  • 1/2 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 hot chili pepper (optional … baba ghanoush doesn’t usually have hot pepper in it, but I roasted these beautiful hot peppers last night and thought it would be a good addition … and it IS! I love the kick it adds to the dip!)
  • Fresh parsley
  • Salt, to taste

Directions:

  1. To get the smoky flavor, you need to grill the eggplant, so start up your grill and if it’s one of those gas grills, throw some rosemary or apple wood chips or something like that on the coals to make a good smoke. Poke your eggplant all over with a fork and set it on the hot grill and roast it for quite a while … until the skin is charred and dark on all sides and the eggplant has gone totally limp and cooked down. Let it set for a few minutes to cool down enough to touch it, then pull off the peel, saving the soft wonderful roasted interior. It might not be the prettiest thing to look at at this point, but don’t worry. It will taste wonderful!
  2. If you are lucky enough to have a hot chili pepper around, roast that on the hot grill too till the skin is black and charred and bubbly on both sides (this won’t take long! only a few minutes on each side), then pull the peel off of the pepper. It should slip right off.
  3. In a food processor or handi chopper, add the roasted peeled eggplant, garlic, lemon juice, tahini, olive oil, the peeled chili pepper and the parsley and blend until the dip is totally smooth and silky. Add salt to taste. Serve at room temperature (or a little warmer) with little toasts or crackers or vegies for dipping. Baba Ghanoush also makes a great sandwich spread and goes very well in a wrap too.

Baba Ghanoush: a creamy, smoky wonderful dip

This recipe was shared at Tastetastic ThursdayFoodie Friends FridayFit & Fabulous Friday, and Totally Tasty Tuesday.

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17 comments

Alicia August 23, 2012 - 10:48 pm

I absolutely adore baba ghanoush, but have never been brave enough to try making it… This looks lovely!

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Ann August 24, 2012 - 8:33 am

It’s not hard, really. The hardest part is grilling the eggplant … I hope you try it!

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kat August 23, 2012 - 11:52 pm

I don’t know why but every time I saw baba ghanoush out loud, it makes me giggle lol! 🙂

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Ann August 24, 2012 - 8:32 am

It’s such a fun word to say 🙂

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Tracy August 24, 2012 - 10:29 am

Im glad I clicked here from Foodie Friends Friday. I had always wondered exactly what baba ghanouch was and YUM! Sounds delicious, definately gonna try when I find some Japanese Eggplant =)

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Ann August 24, 2012 - 10:42 am

I am glad you did too, Tracy! You could use any eggplant (well except for the little teeny ones!) … I just happened to have the Japanese kind on hand. Just adjust the rest of the ingredients to the number of cups of eggplant pulp you end up with.

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Marlys @Thisand That August 24, 2012 - 2:53 pm

This looks delicious… I have some regular eggplants in my garden and also hot peppers… Will have to give this recipe a try. Thanks for sharing on Foodie Friends Friday. Remember to come back on Sunday to vote

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Bam's Kitchen August 25, 2012 - 8:18 am

I love baba ghanoush on rice crackers with roasted veggies…gluten free for me. Take care, BAM

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helene dsouza August 25, 2012 - 8:21 am

Hi there! =)

my mother in law has been frying my brain with baba ganoush. she is always telling me to make it, but somehow I never had the chance and time to check for a recipe. Cant wait to see what she says about your recipe.

Wish u a nice weekend!

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Ann August 25, 2012 - 8:27 am

Oh I hope she likes it! Thank you and have a wonderful weekend too 🙂

Reply
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PolaM August 30, 2012 - 3:04 pm

Love baba ghanoush! This must be delicious!

Reply
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Laura Feldkamp September 30, 2012 - 3:26 pm

wow this recipe has a LOT of garlic flavor but ive never been able to use fresh cloves before so i guess thats it. and i didnt know how much parsley to use so i just took like 5 sprigs or so and used kitche shears to make them smaller before i blended it all up. it is good still just really garlicky i will def try again and use only one clove this time. i hadnt had this in ten years and its really nice.

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Ann September 30, 2012 - 3:47 pm

Sorry Laura I probably should have warned you about the garlic because I like things really garlicky. Baba ghanoush is supposed to be garlicky, but you can always use less if that’s too much for you 🙂

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