Baba Ghanoush

Roasted eggplant dip

(serves 4)

Adapted from Donna Hay's Fresh & Light

For me, cookbooks are more like coffee-table food art, with Donna Hay as one of my favourite food photographers. Pages and pages of inspiring simple dishes that look so tantalisingly delicious i wish i could just press a button and they would appear! Would love to have as much beautiful kitchenware as her! My wonderful boyfriend got me this new cookbook because i couldn't put it down in the bookstore, so i'm sure there will be plenty more Donna Hay variations to come!

Recently i tried the baba ghanoush from Erciyes Restaurant and just could not stop eating it! So naturally, i thought i'd try making it myself. This wasn't quite the same, but i think i just need to touch it up a little by char-grilling the eggplant more and maybe a bit more sesame paste!

Preparation time: 20 min

Cooking time: 10 min

Ingredients:

1 medium eggplant

1 small clove garlic

1/4 C (70g) thick plan yoghurt

1 T lemon juice

2 tsp tahini paste

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp sumac/cumin (optional)

salt and pepper

Method:

1. Cut the eggplant in half and grill for 10min each side, brushing with sesame oil in the last 2-3min. Grill until the skin is toasted and black, and the flesh is soft. Set aside and cool for 10-15min.

2. Peel and discard the skin.

3. Combine the eggplant flesh, garlic, yoghurt, lemon juice, tahini, salt and pepper in a food processor and process until smooth.

4. Season with salt, pepper and sumac/cumin. 

5. Serve with vegetable sticks and crackers.