Baba Ghanoush

Reading nutritional and ingredient labels can lead to heartbreak. I really like baba ghanoush, the roasted eggplant dip, and was disappointed and disgusted to find out that the brand I buy is made with mayo. Mayo is wrong. Everything about it. I had been duped.

A visit to one of my favorite food sites, theKitchn, had an easy recipe. I made it even easier. Do this. It's tasty, healthy, vegan, and there is no mayonnaise.

Ingredients and Tools

• 1 large eggplant
• 1 lemon
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup tahini
• Kosher salt
• pepper
• olive oil
• roasting pan/cookie sheet
• food processor

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Cut off the top of the eggplant and cut it in half lengthwise. Do not peel. That would be crazy. Use a generous amount of olive oil, Kosher salt and pepper. Roast for one hour and cool for another hour.

Once the eggplant is cooled and can be handled safely, it's time to blend. Add the tahini. Tahini is just ground sesame seeds. Add the peeled garlic cloves. I really like garlic and will use two more cloves next time. I added a bit more salt and pepper at this stage. Juice a lemon in a separate bowl to avoid getting seeds in the food processor and then cursing and then digging them out with a spoon and then being annoyed. Not that I did that.

Scrap the "meat" of the eggplant into the food processor, but none of the skin. Process until smooth, about a minute.

You will get a smooth and fresh baba ghanoush that will make you want a big bag of pita chips. I ate this with my fake Middle Eastern chicken salad.

This picture is terribly out of focus, but the baba ghanoush was delicious!