Baba Ghanoush Recipe: A Delicious Way to Eat Eggplant

Baba ghanoush comes in as many varieties as you can dream up, as long as you respect the basic flavors and pick others that will go well with them.

Today you’re going to see two very tasty baba ghanoush recipes. If you’ve never had it before, you’ll see how delicious and original it is to prepare eggplant. Likewise, you can benefit from all of the health benefits it has to offer. It’s easy too — perfect for people who wait until the last minute.

Incorporating eggplants in our regular diet is a way to get more essential nutrients. Although it’s not as popular as other vegetables, it’s a food that provides vitamins, phenolic compounds and antioxidants, as can be seen in a publication of the journal Food Chemistry.

Thanks to this, it’s one of the ingredients that promote health in many different ways. The best thing is that it’s easy to prepare and its flavor combines very well with other foods. To prepare this delicious Middle Eastern dish we will need the following ingredients:

Middle Eastern baba ghanoush

Ingredients

• 3 cloves of garlic
• 3 eggplants
• 1/2 teaspoon of cumin (2 g)
• 1/2 cup of tahini (120 ml)
• 3 tablespoons of lemon juice (45 ml)
• 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper (2 g)
• Olive oil
• Salt

Instructions

• The first step in the preparation of this recipe will be to properly wash the eggplants and chop them.
• Once crushed, we add the cumin, salt, garlic cloves and tahini. This sesame seed paste is used very frequently in the dishes of the Arab world, and has a delicious taste and texture.
• Then, by crushing the slices, we can extract all the juice they contain. In this way, we can prevent them from adding a slightly bitter touch to the stew.
• Then, we will cook them in a pot with enough water and a touch of salt. If you don’t have enough time to boil them, you can bake them lightly until the skin turns black.
• As you stir the ingredients together, you need to pour in a little olive oil, little by little.
  Finally, add the paprika and the tablespoons of lemon juice, mixing everything well.
• Once the eggplant slices are soft, we will pass them through the colander. If you have baked them, you’ll have to remove the blackened skin before doing this.
• When the whole mixture has a smooth texture, the dish will be almost ready. It just needs a little seasoning, and you’ll be able to serve it in dishes or bowls.

Baba ghanoush with potatoes

Now we’ll show you how to make a variation of the prior recipe by adding potatoes to the eggplant puree. It will give the baba ghanoush a different texture and flavor. In addition, as highlighted by a study published in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, potatoes are particularly high in vitamin C, several B vitamins and potassium.

Ingredients

• 2 potatoes
• 1 eggplant
• 8 green beans
• 1 onion
• 1/4 cup of cream cheese (60 ml)
• Olive oil
• Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of sweet pepper (2 g)

 

Instructions

• Wash and peel the green beans and potatoes, then boil with a bit of salt. If you wash the potatoes and green beans well, then you can save the peels you can make a delicious broth later.
• Now, peel the eggplant and cut into slices. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Place onto a cooking sheet covered in parchment paper. Season with salt and sweet pepper, and bake for 25 minutes.
• Once the potatoes are beans are ready, take them out of the water and chop them into smallish pieces.
• Peel and dice the onion very finely. Sauté in a pan with a bit of olive oil, and remove from heat just before they begin to brown.
• Remove the eggplant from the oven when it’s cooked, and put it into a blender along with the potatoes, green beans, and onion, along with some oil, in a blender.
• Also add the cream cheese and half a glass of water to give it a better texture. To enhance the flavor, use the potato cooking water.
• Now blend everything together until it’s smooth.

To finish

Once ready, we can serve this delicious puree in deep dishes or in bowls. We can garnish it with parsley leaf, or sprinkle on some raw or lightly toasted sesame seeds.

If you like croutons, you can fry a few in a pan with a little oil, or even in the oven, and mix them with the puree to add an interesting touch to the dish. However you eat it, you’ll see that it’s a delicious dish and very easy to prepare. What are you waiting for?