Baba Ghanoush

In addition to serving my Father’s Day guests the pineapple monster pictured below, I made a quasi Mediterranean themed lunch, and one of the things I made was Baba Ghanoush. I love eggplant and generally prefer this delicious eggplant dip to hummus, its more popular chickpea counterpart. The market near my house sells a great version of it from a local company, so I had never felt a great urge to make it myself. However, I saw an easy (and yummy) looking recipe in Cook’s Illustrated's Summer Entertaining issue and decided it would be fun to try making it. I’m glad I did: this was a very tasty dip and everyone seemed to like it. It has very minimal seasoning, so the smoky eggplant flavor really stands out, as opposed to being trounced by garlic and tahini (not that I don’t like those flavors – a lot, actually – but I’ve tried a lot of versions where they overpower the star of the dip). This recipe gets a 7 for Deliciousness (I am not in total agreement with the superlative title of the recipe) and a 2 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 3.5.



The Best Baba Ghanoush, from Cook’s Illustrated’s Summer Entertaining edition

2 pounds eggplant (about 2 large globe eggplants, 5 medium Italian eggplants, or 12 medium Japanese eggplants), each poked uniformly over entire surface with fork to prevent bursting
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 small garlic clove, minced or pressed through garlic press (about ½ teaspoon)
2 tablespoons tahini paste
Table salt and ground black pepper
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

Turn all burners on gas grill to high, close lid, and heat grill until hot, approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Set eggplants atop foil on grill rack. Grill until skins darken and wrinkle and eggplants are uniformly soft when pressed with tongs. This should take approximately 25 minutes for large eggplants or 15 to 20 for the smaller varieties. (Note: My large globe eggplants took at least 35 because we didn’t properly heat the grill.) Place eggplants on a plate or rimmed baking sheet and cool for five minutes.

Set small colander over bowl or in sink. Trim the top and bottom off each eggplant. Slit eggplants lengthwise; scoop out the hot pulp with a large spoon and place in colander (you should have 2 cups of pulp). Discard skin and let pulp drain for 3 minutes.

Transfer pulp to bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade. Add lemon juice, garlic, tahini, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper; process until mixture has coarse, choppy texture, about 8 1-second pulses. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper; transfer to serving bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 45 to 60 minutes. Alternatively, you can place the pulp and all the other ingredients (including a tablespoon olive oil and most of the parsley) in a medium bowl and mash with a pastry blender. (I didn’t feel like dragging out my food processor. It may not be as smooth and creamy as intended, but the flavor was still great.)

To serve, use spoon to make trough in center of and spoon olive oil into it; sprinkle with parsley. Serve with pita bread, pita chips, or vegetables.

Hobo Monday: Eggplant, Zucchini, and Chickpea Salad

This month’s Hobo Monday challenge was to prepare a meal with chickpeas, other than hummus. The only other dish I ever make with chickpeas besides hummus is a Warm Butternut and Chickpea Salad with Tahini, which I found on Orangette and have made numerous times. I had wondered how this amazing salad would adapt with other vegetables, particularly eggplant, so I decided this would be a great opportunity to give it a try.



Since I was using eggplant and zucchini rather than butternut squash, I altered the herb in the original recipe from cilantro to basil (parsley would work too, but I wanted something fresh and bright), as well as omitted allspice and added some dried thyme. The results? It was very good, though not quite as wonderful as the original recipe. I think the tahini sauce complements the warm, rich flavor of butternut squash a bit better. This recipe still gets an 8 for Deliciousness and 2 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 4.



And now for the total: $1.99 for the eggplant, $ .89 for the chickpeas, approximately $1.50 for the zucchini, and probably about $ .75 for the tahini, partial onion, and basil. The lemons were free, and the rest of the ingredients are staples. So my total was $5.14 and it yielded three meals (two for dinner and one for lunch) at $1.71 per portion. I went just slightly over budget, but it was an even cheaper lunch than the pre-made salads I usually buy from Trader Joe’s, so I say it was a success.



If you would like to see how others stretched their dollars to create meals with chickpeas for $5.00 or less, there will be a round-up on the Thursday Night Smackdown site on Saturday.

Eggplant, Zucchini, and Chickpea Salad adapted from this recipe from Orangette
1 large eggplant, dried and cut into ¼ inch cubes
2 medium zucchini
2 medium garlic cloves, pressed
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 tablespoons. olive oil
Salt (to taste)
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
¼ cup of red onion, finely chopped
1/3 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped

Tahini Sauce
1 medium garlic clove, finely minced with a pinch of salt
3 ½ tablespoons. lemon juice
3 tablespoons tahini
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons olive oil

Cut your eggplant into round slices, salt, and let sit to dry on paper towels for half an hour. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and cut the eggplant into cubes. Cut the zucchini into similar-sized pieces. Place both vegetables in a large bowl and toss with thyme, garlic, olive oil, and salt. Pour vegetables onto a baking sheet and roast for approximately 25 minutes or until tender. Remove from the oven.

While the vegetables are roasting, chop the onion and basil and make the tahini sauce. Whisk the garlic and lemon juice together in a small container (I like pyrex measuring cups for sauces), and then stir in the tahini, water, and olive oil.

Combine the roasted vegetables with the chickpeas, basil, and onion in a large bowl. You can dress the entire salad, but since I knew there would be leftovers, I dressed each portion individually.