What is Baba Ganoush made of?

Baba ganoush is a Mediterranean eggplant dip made from roasted or grilled eggplant, tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and salt . Like hummus, it's delicious with pita or fresh veggies, but its silky texture and irresistible smoky flavor set it apart.

How do you know when eggplant is roasted?

Check the eggplant flesh to make sure it is soft, roasted, and caramelized throughout . If any parts looked light-colored or undercooked, return to the oven to roast for a few minutes longer. Scoop out the roasted pulpy flesh from each half and place it in a bowl. Discard the charred skin.

Which is healthier hummus or baba ganoush?

3) Health – Both dishes are very healthy, but baba ganoush has a slight edge here with more vitamins from the eggplant and a lower calorie count . 4) Big meal to come – Get baba ganoush, it's less filling than hummus.

Which is more fattening hummus or baba ganoush?

Both have 0% cholesterol and are high in fiber and protein content. Nonetheless, hummus has higher calorie content than baba ganoush , and baba ganoush contains vitamins B and E, which are nonexistent in hummus.

What is the secret to cooking eggplant?

Eggplants are known to absorb a lot of fat while cooking. A useful tip to prevent sogginess and greasiness is to salt sliced or diced eggplant and let it sit for an hour . This helps to draw out moisture. Next, rinse and drain any liquid from the sliced eggplant, then pat dry before cooking.

Do you eat the skin of roasted eggplant?

The skin is edible , so you can leave it on when preparing eggplant. Cut off the stem and then cut into your desired shape—slices and cubes are popular options. Cut off and discard any parts that are turning brown. Those parts are more bitter than the normally creamy white interior.

Is baba ganoush healthy or unhealthy?

Yes, baba ganoush is healthy . The main ingredient is eggplant, which is low in calories and carbohydrates and high in fiber. It's also a good source of vitamins and minerals like potassium and vitamin K. It's also lower in calories than hummus since it's mostly made of eggplant versus chickpeas.

What's the difference between hummus and baba ganoush?

The difference is that roasted eggplant forms the base for baba ganoush while chick peas are the backbone of hummus . The roasted eggplant lends this eggplant dip a slightly sweeter, smokier flavor, and a lower fat and calorie count than hummus. Plus it can be easier on the tummy than hard-to-digest chickpeas.

What is baba ganoush supposed to taste like?

Rich, smoky flavor : The unique, smoky taste of Baba Ghanoush comes from roasting the eggplant, which gives it a deep, earthy flavor that people can't get enough of. Creamy texture: Baba Ghanoush has a smooth and velvety texture, making it a perfect dip for pita chips, vegetables, or as a spread in sandwiches and wraps.

Roasted Eggplant With Tahini, Pine Nuts, and Lentils Recipe (2024)

Why It Works

Puréeing the garlic in lemon juice tames its flavor, creating a tahini that's flavorful but not pungent.
Cooking the eggplant at high heat evaporates its moisture quickly.

This dish of eggplant roasted until caramelized and tender, served over stewed lentils with an extraordinarily light and creamy tahini sauce and crunchy pine nuts, was dinner and lunch for more meals than I care to count a couple of weeks back. Not that I'm complaining: It's extremely good.

I gotta admit, it was a little disappointing to see my bookget eliminated from Food52's annual Piglet tournament of cookbooksin the quarterfinal round, but it was a loss made much sweeter by the fact that I was introduced to another book I would have never seen if it weren't for the competition. As soon as I readPhyllis Grant's breathless description of the tahini sauce recipein Michael Solomonov'sZahav, I ordered the book without a second thought.

Oh, man, was it worth it.

I'd been experimenting with the treatment of chickpeas in hummus recipes for a while, but I'd largely been ignoring what, for Israeli versions of hummus, is almost as important: the tahini.

Roasted Eggplant With Tahini, Pine Nuts, and Lentils Recipe (1)

Getting Garlicky: the Tahini Sauce

Solomonov's version begins by puréeing whole, unpeeled garlic cloves with lemon juice in a blender. You'd expect this to create an intensely pungent garlic flavor, yet, because the garlic is puréed in an acidic liquid, it forms very little of the nose-tickling garlicky compound known asallicinand instead ends up mild and fragrant. (More details on this process in the hummus examination.)

The garlic and lemon mixture gets pushed through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl. You whisk in some cumin and tahini, which immediately seizes up into a clumpy, cement-like paste. Don't worry: As you slowly whisk in cold water, the mixture transforms into a gloriously light and creamy sauce with the texture of yogurt and a savory nuttiness.

It's very rare that I'm completely satisfied with a technique the first time I try it, but after some serious tinkering with this one, I couldn't find any way to improve upon Solomonov's original. With the exception of a few minor changes in ratios, it's essentially step for step how he does it. It works wonders as an ingredient in dips, or, as I'm using it here, as a sauce for roasted eggplant.

Eggplant is an almost cliché ingredient in vegetarian and vegan dishes (think: grilled eggplant in place of burgers), but there's a good reason: It's incredibly tasty when cooked right.

Roasted Eggplant With Tahini, Pine Nuts, and Lentils Recipe (2)

Roasting the Eggplant

I like to treat my eggplant to some pretty intense heat, whether it's whole on the grill, placed directly over the gas flame of a burner until charred, or roasted. High heat rapidly evaporates its interior moisture, allowing the eggplant to compress and increase in density while also adding nice smokiness.

Roasting eggplants whole will yield meltingly tender flesh inside, but here I wanted something a little meatier. So I split them in half first and scored them to expose their flesh to more of the caramelizing heat of the oven.

Roasted Eggplant With Tahini, Pine Nuts, and Lentils Recipe (3)

Eggplant is quite porous and will absorb a good amount of oil, so I brush it on pretty generously—at least a tablespoon per cut half—allowing each brushstroke of oil to soak into the flesh before brushing it on again. Oil not only adds rich texture and flavor (especially if it's a good-quality extra-virgin olive oil) but also ensures more even browning and heat distribution.

I roast the eggplants in a hot oven with a few sprigs of rosemary for extra fragrance. (If you prefer thyme, oregano, parsley, or any other herb, really, there's nothing that should stop you.) When the eggplant is tender and caramelized, it's ready to serve. You could scoop out the flesh andwhip it into a baba ganoush, but in this case, I like the fork-and-knife heartiness of serving it deconstructed, with the tahini sauce spooned over it.

A Simple Lentil Stew

To make it a complete meal, I pair it up with some lentils that are simply cooked with onions, carrots, celery, garlic, and bay leaves.

Roasted Eggplant With Tahini, Pine Nuts, and Lentils Recipe (4)

Rosemary, parsley, and toasted pine nuts add freshness and texture. Like I said, I was a little bit bummed when I saw my book get bumped out, but it's really hard to get hung up in gray clouds when the silver linings are so darn delicious.

March 2016

Recipe Details