Baba Ganoush is a silky, smoky eggplant dip that has a little tang from the tahini and lemon juice. It really hits all the right notes for a dip: creamy, tangy, and addicting!
My husband and I have been on a Mediterranean food bender.
For the past, oh, 3 months we have tried the better part of the restaurants in Atlanta and have narrowed it down to two favorites! One happens to be 2 blocks away.
Sometimes we get the lamb gyro and other times the chicken shish kabob, but we always start with the Baba Ganoush!
A perfect baba ganoush is still a little chunky. I don’t like when it is completely smooth. It lacks texture, and we can’t have that!
See? Texture!
This baba is delicious! Roasted eggplants are mashed with tahini, spices and lemon juice for an easy appetizer! The most time consuming part is roasting the eggplants, so make double, taste-test a little, refrigerate over night and then serve with pita chips or warmed pita bread slices! Easy.
This game day serve your friends something a little different!
The hardest part will be not eating it all before your guests arrive. Trust me, I know!
Recipe
Baba Ganoush
Ingredients
- 2 medium eggplants (approximately 2 pounds)
- ¼ cup tahini (sesame paste)
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
- 2 garlic cloves (finely minced)
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley leaves (coarsely chopped for serving)
- Quality olive oil (for drizzling)
Instructions
- Preheat your broiler and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Prick eggplants several times on each side with a fork and broil on baking sheet for 2 minutes on each side (four sides). This adds the smoky flavor to the baba! Yay!
- Switch your oven from the broiler and preheat to 375°F without removing the eggplants from the oven. Roast eggplants 25 to 30 minutes or until very soft. Cool until you can easily handle them.
- While your eggplants cool, whisk together tahini, lemon juice, garlic, cumin and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Split the eggplants, drain of excess liquid, spoon out the flesh, and add it to the tahini mixture.
- Mash the eggplants into the tahini mixture with a fork until it is creamy and only very small lumps remain. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with parsley right before serving!
- Serve with toasted pita, warm soft pita or pita chips!
Notes
Keep refrigerated. The flavors meld nicely after a 12 hour stay in the fridge. Recipe adapted from Inspired by Taste
Most in Middle East have gas stoves. Eggplants are roasted over gas flame and turned until charred. Charring gives a delicious flavor. I loved this. Was not a tabouleh fan. I think this is called matabol? In the ME and baba ganosh is a salad with tomato cucumber onion sumac parsley Watercress dried Arabic bread.
So I'm wrong. . Mutabal s creamy and baba ganosh has chunks of eggplant. The other is a salad I ate in Saudi Arabia but some put too much sumac, which is sour
Thank you @Lindsey for co-hosting this great giveaway! I was contacted by Kristi and I am the winner! Yeah! I love following your blog and collecting all of these fantastic recipes. I will be stopping by often.
I am soooo excited for you Trish!!! Congratulations! Enjoy! ~Lindsey
I've eaten Baba Ganoush before, but never made it. Next time I buy some tahini, I will have to try your recipe. It looks wonderful!
You should! Shockingly easy too!
I made your lovely baba ganoush & loved it so much!
I love the flavor of roasted aubergines! In Summer, I will be having my own home grown aubergines & will make this again & again! ooh yes! xxx
You grow your own eggplants too!?! It seems I am the only one who doesn't! You must make baba with at least 2 of them! And then invite me over...obvi 🙂
I've always heard of Baba Ganoush but had never really known what it was. I'm so glad you posted a recipe that broke down the dish for us!
No prob, Shelby! It's so delicious!
Looks fresh and delicious Lindsay! Never tried to make baba gnash, but will try it! Pinned!
Thanks, Mira! It's so easy! Thanks for the pin!
Having your favorite restaurant 2 blocks away is dangerously close, but also great! Need to try this baba ganoush, looks fantastic!
I plan on scouring NYC for my new favorite Med. place! I can't possibly go 6 months without it!
I'm excited to try this. We just received our seed order and YES I decided to try growing eggplant. Woohoo, can't wait til summer. I of course will have to try this sooner with the store bought eggplant.
How fun! Someday I want to have a garden! Not sure if I will tackle eggplant right away...baby steps! I see lots of baba and eggplant parmesan in your future 🙂
I love baba ganoush! I try to make it as often as possible in the summer when I have eggplant from my garden. Your post has me craving it again with some fresh pita bread!
You have eggplant in your garden! Go girl!
You know what's funny? I was totally craving baba ganoush the other day. And then I open up my Bloglovin this morning to see your beautiful version staring back to me. It's no cupcake, but this looks about as perfect as you can get! Our Mediterranean restaurant options in upstate NY are a bit more limited than they were in the A, so I might just have to make this in my own kitchen soon. Two thumbs up!
In my experience very few things rival cupcakes, but I still love Baba all the same! Patience grasshopper, I have a cupcake post coming soon 🙂
Or we can get Med. when you come to NYC!! Hooray! I'll start scouting next week. Mkay?
Mkay. I think that is a deal. 🙂
Oh joy, rapture! Texture is right. We just love a good baba at our house and agree that it is the perfect dip to serve on Super Bowl Sunday...or any gathering for that matter. Linds, your recipe looks incredibly delish! Thanks for sharing, my friend!
Thanks, Stacy! Another baba lover! I should have known though 🙂
I've never made eggplant (ok once, and it was delicious), but this definitely makes me curious enough to try again! BTW, thank you for participating in the giveaway!
Thanks for hosting! I am not a huge eggplant fan but I will move mountains to have a good Baba!
Oh my goodness, this recipe sounds amazing, and the pictures are stunning. I didn't know baba ganoush was a relatively simple recipe. I can't wait to start making it at home!
Super simple, Connie! You'll love it!
I absolutely adore baba ganoush but have never tried making it at home! Yours looks perfect and I love that yours is still a little chunky too which is just how it should be 🙂 I would have a hard time not snacking on this before the guests arrive too!
Fortunately for us there were no guests, so we just ate it all in one sitting without shame! lol!
How did you know to serve up one of my very favorite dips? That was so nice of you! I'm totally craving this right now and must make it soon -- I love, love, LOVE eggplant, and Mediterranean food is where it's at! 🙂
Is it?! I am always surprised how many people like baba! But I really should be considering we love it!
Can you believe that I've never had baba ganoush before?! I definitely have to get on that after seeing your recipe. This dip looks fantastic, Lindsey! Sounds so flavor and delish! Pinned!
You must try it, Gayle! It's so delicious! Thank for the pin, girl!
I love Mediterranean food, maybe because it's very similar to Indian food! This looks fantastic Lindsey!
Or maybe because both Indian food and Mediterranean food are AWESOME!
I've never tried baba ganoush, but I love roasted eggplant so I'm excited to try this! It looks like perfect healthy game day food! Pinned!
If you love roasted eggplant and the tang of tahini then you will flip over Baba Ganoush! Plus it seems healthy-ish, right? Thanks for the pin!