Baba Ganoush
Simple Recipes Vegetables Arabic Salads
Eggplant salad with garlic revisited after 7 years (I first posted it in 2015). The salad is creamy, without containing mayonnaise. The creaminess comes from sesame paste and yogurt.
Ingredients
2 medium eggplants
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 large clove garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 level tablespoons sesame paste (tahini)
150 g Greek yogurt
parsley (or mint)
salt, black pepper
How to prepare baba ganoush
- If using pre-roasted eggplants from the freezer, after thawing let them drain in a sieve for 10 minutes.
If using fresh eggplants, roast them and then clean them following the instructions here. Let them drain in a sieve (about 10 minutes). Then finely chop the eggplants with a wooden chopper until you get a paste and refrigerate to cool completely. During this time they will release more juice, which you'll drain before preparing the salad. - While the eggplants are roasting/draining, crush the garlic in a mortar until it becomes a paste and then mix it with 1 tablespoon of oil. Let it sit until needed.
- Put the eggplant flesh in a spacious bowl so you can mix easily. Drizzle the eggplants with lemon juice and sprinkle salt, then stir vigorously with a wooden spoon. Taste to make sure they're pleasantly salted. If the eggplants weren't roasted on a stovetop/grill, but in the oven, add 1/4 teaspoon smoked salt.
- Add the oil with garlic and stir vigorously again. When you mix the eggplants with lemon and oil, they will whiten slightly.
- Add the sesame paste and yogurt and mix well, taste again for salt.
- Serve the salad drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with chopped herbs. Grind some black pepper on top. It goes well with Lebanese pita, Turkish bread, or Arabic bread. A tomato salad goes nicely alongside as well.
