Green Your Life: Homemade Baba Ganoush

Reader Contribution by Dani Hurst
Published on October 18, 2010
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As eggplant season winds down, I find myself regretful that I didn’t plan more recipes around these savory berries (don’t worry, I didn’t know they were berries until recently, either). To rectify this, I turned to my mom’s tasty and easy-to-follow recipe for homemade baba ganoush.


Eggplant, garlic and lemon juice are all you need to make a tasty baba ganoush at home. Photo By Dani Hurst.

Ingredients:

Two large eggplants
Two to four cloves of garlic (depending on how much you like garlic)
Salt and pepper to taste
A squeeze of lemon juice to taste
Foil for wrapping

1. After you wash and dry the eggplants, wrap each completely in foil and place on stove top coils or open flame.

2. Cook the eggplants over high heat until they are charred and soft to the touch, turning with tongs every 3-5 minutes. (The cooking time will depend on the size and thickness of each eggplant, but will range between 10 and 15 minutes.) When done cooking, remove the eggplants from the stove top coils or flame and set aside to cool, about 15 minutes.

3. When cool enough to handle, open the foil and slice each eggplant lengthwise. Scoop out the insides with a large spoon into a food processor and blend with the cloves of garlic and lemon juice until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.

You can serve baba ganoush right out of the food processor (foreground) with a squeeze of lemon, or you can add a few scoops of mayonnaise to make a creamier concoction (background). Photo By Dani Hurst.

And that’s all it takes to make fresh baba ganoush at home! What’s great about this dish is that you can personalize it by adding some of your favorite ingredients, including parsley flakes and paprika. If you like a more indulgent baba ganoush, add a few spoonfuls of mayonnaise for a creamy complement to pita bread.

Note: While roasting eggplant on the stove is easy, it can also create enough smoke to trigger your smoke alarm, so make sure your cooking area is well-ventilated. This roasting method may also leave foil residue on your stove top coils, but don’t panic, renters, because it should come right off once the coil has cooled down.

Bon appétit!

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