In most western countries, hummus is probably the best-known middle-eastern dip. And hummus surely deserves its popularity, especially when we talk about a fantastic smooth hummus. Sadly, hummus seems to steel the show of another meze that would deserve more attention: baba ganoush. A good vegan baba ganoush is just so delicious, it’s an absolute staple in my fridge, and I cannot get enough of it. Even my friends that usually hate eggplant have approved of it as a great dish. So, I dare you to give this recipe a try. You might end up finding a new favourite meze!
What is Baba Ganoush:
Baba ganoush is a traditional Levantine spread known as baba ganouj or baba ghanoush. The dish is a relative to salat hatzilim and muttabal, which all feature grilled eggplant as their key ingredient. Baba ganoush shares some characteristics of hummus as it uses tahini and lemon juice too. Still, the meze is unique in its taste due to the eggplant base. The eggplant is roasted, leading to a super creamy and flavourful meze. Baba ganoush is often vegan by default, but some like to add yoghurt to the dish, which we simply omit. It’s easy to make and just super enjoyable to eat. Let’s jump right in!
Ingredients for Delicious Baba Ganoush:
- Eggplant
- Tahini
- Lemon juice
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Optional: Herbs & spices
As the base ingredient, you will need a large eggplant. Furthermore, you need tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt. Additionally, you can add herbs and spices to the baba ganoush. While it’s very untraditional, I added some herbs de Provence to this one, which tasted amazing, in addition to a pinch of garlic powder and chilli powder. Otherwise, za’atar and sumac are commonly added spices. Feel free to play around with different seasonings and find what you like most for yourself!
Delicious Baba Ganoush Recipe:
For delicious vegan baba ganoush, it is essential to prepare your eggplant right. It will determine the final taste and its consistency. The key to making fantastic baba ganoush is roasting your eggplant well. You can roast it over an open fire, on a barbeque grill, or simply in the oven. While fire-roasting or grilling your eggplant will develop some enjoyable smokey flavours, it’s sometimes not feasible to make a fire. Luckily, an oven will give you great results as well, which is what I am using today too.
Roasting the Eggplant
Take your eggplant, and put it into the oven. Roast it at 250° celsius until completely charred. You want the skin of the eggplant to break when poking it with your cooking spoon. Depending on the size of your eggplant, this process might take a while. Take it out of the oven, and let it cool until being safe to touch. Next, you need to peel off the skin. This process should be barely any effort if you roasted the eggplant enough. The inside should have shrunken down quite a lot.
Next, we want to extract as much of the remaining moisture from the eggplant as possible. Watery baba ganoush is definitely not what we are looking for. After being cooled completely, place the eggplant over a sieve and squeeze out as much moisture as possible. You will be surprised how much liquid there was left. If the eggplant is falling apart during this process, that is perfectly fine. You want to tear it into pieces anyways, and the sieve is there to catch all that beautifully roasted eggplant. Once finished squeezing out the liquid, put the remaining eggplant into a bowl. Add your tahini, olive oil, a touch of lemon juice, and spices.
Mash and mix the ingredients using a fork until reaching the desired creaminess and consistency. I like a creamy baba ganoush with some texture of the eggplant remaining.
Plating the Baba Ganoush:
To plate the baba ganoush, I like to spread the dip on a nice plate and dress it with more extra virgin olive oil. You can top it with some more of your spices if you desire. And that’s it! I hope you enjoy this dip and that I succeeded in giving baba ganoush a bit more well-deserved recognition. Tell me what you think of this vegan baba ganoush recipe, and tag me on Instagram if you recreate it!
Some more Recipe Inspirations:
- Do you enjoy these Levantine dishes? This fresh and tangy tabbouleh makes a fantastic meze as well!
- Try making this fantastic smooth hummus.
- Have you heard of this genius Levantine breakfast? Hummus fatteh is simply incredible.
- Muhammara is another classic Levantine spread that cannot miss on your meze plate!
- This fava bean spread makes another great meze.
- Ever had Ful Medames, the classic Egyptian breakfast?
Tasty Vegan Baba Ganoush Recipe
Course: Meze, Starter, Appetizer2
servings5
minutes40
minutesIngredients
1 large eggplant
2 tbsp tahini
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1 pinch salt
optional: herbs and spices like chilli powder, garlic powder, za’atar or sumac
Directions
- Take your eggplant, and put it into the oven. Roast it at 250° celsius until completely charred. You want the skin of the eggplant to break when poking it with your cooking spoon. Alternatively, you can roast the eggplant on a fire grill.
- After being cooled completely, place the eggplant over a sieve and squeeze out as much moisture as possible.
- Once finished squeezing out the liquid, put the remaining eggplant into a bowl. Add your tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, and spices.
- Mash and mix the ingredients using a fork until reaching the desired creaminess and consistency. I like a creamy baba ganoush with some texture of the eggplant remaining. Leave a tablespoon worth of olive oil for the final plating.
- To plate the baba ganoush, I like to spread the dip on a nice plate and dress it with more extra virgin olive oil. You can top it with some more of your spices if you desire.