Baba Ganoush

This baba ganoush is bursting with roasted garlicky goodness and finished with a generous helping of smoked paprika and extra virgin olive oil that will have your tastebuds thanking you.

A perfect mezze…

This fantastic eggplant dip is perfect served as a first course or appetizer. It is often served with warmed pita, much like hummus, but you can serve it with crudités. You certainly don’t have to limit it to just a mezze; feel free to use it slathered on roasted or grilled meats. I topped my Greek Chicken Skewers with this roasted baba and it was incredible!

A riff on the original…

Traditional baba ganoush is mashed eggplant, usually cooked over a flame to infuse a smokey flavor into the flesh, that is combined with tahini (ground sesame), olive oil, and spices. This version uses roasted garlic, which tends to sweeten the garlic flavor. You can roast the garlic as it says in the recipe or use about 8-10 cloves of garlic confit. I add a bit of lemon to brighten the flavor in this recipe. To finish this version, I toast pine nuts, top with smoked paprika from Spain, and drizzle a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil.

Some fun substitutes would be:

• pepitas/sesame seeds/ roasted sunflower seeds for the pine nuts
• tomato confit instead of olive oil
• sumac/cayanne pepper/coriander/cumin for the smoked paprika
• garlic confit for the roasted garlic
• yogurt for the lemon