• About Me
  • Coaching
  • Work with me
  • In media

Saffron Trail

healthy vegetarian cooking

  • Home
  • Breakfast
  • Salads
  • Nutrition
  • Food & Travel
  • Home
  • Breakfast
  • Salads
  • Nutrition
  • Food & Travel
Appetizers, beginner, Condiments, Diabetic friendly, Party dishes, Vegetables

Recipe for Baba Gannouj / Gannoush – Middle Eastern Eggplant Dip

April 8, 2006

baba ganoush

Recipe for Baba Ganoush – a Middle Eastern Eggplant based dip, which is usually a part of a mezze platter

baba ganoush

The first time I came across Baba Gannoush ( Pronounced “Ga-NOOSH”) was at Basha, a Greek restaurant in Rochester, NY-where they had accidentally brought this onto our table instead of Hummus. One taste of the stuff and I knew that it was surely smoked brinjal and not chickpeas that I was tasting.

To prepare a vegetarian mezze platter, here are the recipes

  • Hummus – Carrot White Bean hummus | Pumpkin hummus | Turmeric green mango hummus
  • Baba Gannoush
  • Mutabal  – this is another eggplant based dip but slightly different from Baba Ganoush in flavour
  • Labneh – Whisk together a tablespoon or two of extra virgin olive oil into a cup of hung yogurt. Season with a pinch of salt and za’atar or sumac.
  • Pita bread / Pita chips
  • Olives
  • Tabbouleh – Mix in couscous or any other grain like cooked quinoa or millet with lots of finely chopped parsley and mint. Stir in chopped tomatoes, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

Here are some more roasted eggplant recipes

  • Roasted or charred eggplant finds its way into quite a few recipes, and not just Arabic. The famous Punjabi Baingan Bharta is another dish you can prepare using the flesh of a roasted eggplant.
  • Roasted eggplant is mixed with spices and tamarind pulp to make an intensely flavourful curry called Gothsu that is served with savoury pongal.
  • Or how about this roasted eggplant soup?
  • Roasted eggplant pairs with yogurt in the simple raita, that makes an easy accompaniment to any Indian meal.

Baba Ganoush is a classic Mediterranean eggplant dip. It’s silky, smokey and bursting with flavour. Here goes my version…

baba ganoush

Baba Ganoush

Recipe for Baba Ganoush - a Middle Eastern Eggplant based dip, which is usually a part of a mezze platter
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes mins
Total Time 15 minutes mins
Servings: 4 servings
Course: Appetizer
Cuisine: arabic, middle eastern
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1 eggplant large variety ~350 grams
  • 2 tbsp sesame seeds toasted (or use 1 tablespoon Tahini)
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 2 tbsp yogurt thick
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper freshly ground
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 - 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tbsp finely chopped parsely

Method
 

  1. To prepare Baba Ganoush, start by roasting the eggplant. Roasting it on a direct flame or the grill gives the best smokey taste.Place the brinjal on a medium flame, and rotate regularly so that the skin gets evenly blistered and charred. It will take about 10-12 min for the entire brinjal to get roasted and soft from within. However you can roast it on a lightly greased baking sheet by slitting it in half lengthwise at 350 F. I prefer to broil rather than bake, for that browning effect.
  2. Peel off the blistered skin, chop roughly and keep aside.
  3. Assembling the ingredients: In a blender, roughly grind the roasted sesame seeds. Then add the chopped roasted brinjal and all other ingredients except parsely/ coriander and olive oil. Blend to a smooth paste.
  4. Serve: Remove the paste onto a shallow dish. Mix in the olive oil. Garnish with minced parsely / coriander and a swirl of some more olive oil.

Notes

Serving suggestion:Serve the chilled Baba Ganouj with warm pita bread brushed with olive oil. If pita bread is not readily available, you can either serve it with toasted slices of a whole wheat bread / foccasia or whole wheat crackers.
Last evening, I served it to my guests with wedges of garlic bread toasted till warm. They loved it!.
The original recipe calls for Tahini, which a sesame seed paste in olive oil. Since Tahini is not easily available in grocery stores in India, I ground roasted sesame seeds along with other ingredients. I did not find much of a taste deviation from the original.
(Updated in Sep 2017: Tahini is available easily online as well as in several supermarkets - Tahini on Amazon.in )

Image credit – Shutterstock

appetiser condiments eggplant middle eastern
by Nandita Iyer 
5 Comments

About Nandita Iyer

View all posts by Nandita Iyer

Related Posts

  • sheet pan eggplantSuper Easy Sheet Pan Eggplant – Vegan & Gluten Free
  • tandoori cauliflower hummusTandoori Cauliflower Hummus with Crispy Quinoa
  • easy tomato chutney idli dosaThe one tomato chutney recipe you need in your life
  • cabbage chutney healthy cabbage recipesCabbage Chutney | Healthy Cabbage Recipes
previous post: Healthy date pancakes
next post: Cashew Nut Payasam – A quick Indian dessert with just 5 ingredients

Comments

  1. Vijai says: April 8, 2006 at 6:33 am

    Oooh, that dip was delicious. Pity there were no fries to go with it though. And I got to eat only one spinach leaf!Woman, you do take pains to put out a neat spread. Excellent!p.s. That slightly pungent taste that I was referring to, must have been the olive oil that you glazed the bread with?

    Reply
  2. Lalit Vashista says: April 10, 2006 at 5:43 am

    Yummmmmm One of the most amazing dips I have tried. The garlic flavour blended with sesame is still lingering in my mouthDip of the Week. I got the Lucky DIP

    Reply
  3. Saffron says: April 11, 2006 at 8:56 pm

    yumm, baba ganouj…truly a wonderful dip! our family loves it too 🙂 I’ve never made it with yogurt, but I bet it adds a nice tart taste to it. Good recipe! cheers!

    Reply
  4. khuto says: April 16, 2006 at 2:08 am

    try it also with leftover roti, roasted crisp on a tawa, and generouslyspread with brinjal-garlic-yoghurtybaga ganoush…

    Reply
  5. ramya says: February 10, 2010 at 9:17 am

    Hi,I made this recently,and it came amazing…such a wonderful thing baingan can be!!

    Reply

Leave Your Comments Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating





Click for details

Buy my books

Amazon Storefront

Subscribe to my newsletter

Subscribe to My Channel

Archives

Categories

Featured Recipes

  • Salad Recipes
  • Tamil Vegetarian Recipes
  • Summer Recipes
  • Millet Recipes
  • Airfryer Recipes
  • Eggless Baking Recipes
  • Vegetable Recipes
  • Kerala Recipes

AS FEATURED IN

Copyright © 2025 · Saffron Trail by Nandita Iyer · Privacy & Disclosure Policy · Hosted & Managed by Host My Blog

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.