Baba Ganoush is a dish made by pureeing eggplant with herbs and spices to create a unique dip or spread. Similar to hummus, baba ganoush is delicious on sandwiches, eggs, or with vegetables.
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How to Keep Eggplants from Being Bitter
Eggplants are fickle creatures; they’re not easy to work with. It’s the skin of the eggplant that makes cooking the vegetable so difficult. If the skin isn’t cooked correctly or removed, the eggplant can taste bitter.
There are a few ways that you can avoid this bitter-skinned scenario. First, slice or cube the eggplant and then salt it. As the salt rests for about a half an hour, osmosis draws the water from the eggplant, taking the bitterness along with it. Another option to stave off bitterness is to simply remove the skins altogether.
The latter is the route that I chose for my baba ganoush. The eggplants roast for long enough to tenderize the interior flesh of the vegetable, but not so long that the skin cannot be removed easily. By removing the skin from the eggplants after roasting, only the sweet part of the vegetable remains to make your delicious baba ganoush.
Baba Ganoush vs Moutabble
Creating a recipe for this dish was difficult, mostly because every recipe that I came across for “baba ganoush” really wasn’t a recipe for baba ganoush at all. They were recipes for moutabble .
Moutabble is very similar to baba ganoush in terms of ingredients, but there is one large difference– tahini. In recipes for moutabble, eggplant mixes with tahini to make a paste. Baba ganoush does not contain tahini. Instead, the eggplant mixes with other vegetables like onions or tomatoes if the chef so chooses. The words are often used interchangeably, but the two dishes are technically distinct from one another. Our baba ganoush recipe lacks tahini, making it traditional. Stay tuned for a moutabble recipe coming soon! It’s now on my list of recipes to try.
Variations
This recipe is fairly customizable to your tastes. If you want more onions, add more onions. If you want tomatoes, add tomatoes (though be careful, because too many tomatoes will make the baba ganoush soupy). If you want to experiment with spices, this is a great dish to try.
I will tell you, though, I’m a fan of the ingredients and spices in this recipe. Try it and let me know what you think!
Did you like this Bahraini dip? If you made it, leave a comment on this post telling me how it tasted! Feel free to post a photo and tag @theforeignfork or hashtag @theforeignfork. If you liked this, you may also like some of my other favorite appetizers/sides like this Pa amb Tomaquet from Andorra or this Mangal Salad from Azerbaijan.
Baba Ganoush (Bahrain)
Ingredients
- 2 eggplants, roasted
- 2 tsp chopped garlic
- 2 tbsp parsley, chopped
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp olive oil, plus more for serving
- ¾ tsp kosher salt
- ¼ tsp cumin
- ¼ tsp Paprika
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Roast eggplants for about 45-50 minutes or until the skin begins to wrinkle and turn black but is not burning.
- Remove eggplants from oven and allow to cool. Peel the skin away from the eggplant.
- Chop the eggplant and put in a blender with the remaining ingredients. Blend until combined, adding more seasonings to taste.
- Pour baba ganoush into a serving bowl and drizzle generously with olive oil.
- Serve as a dip or a spread with vegetables, sandwiches, etc. Enjoy!
Gina says
Hi there,
I’d like to try this recipe.
Last night, we had a restaurant’s version of babaganoush. Instead of the subtly smokey taste I expected, it tasted more like Liquid Smoke!
Now, I see so many recipes online using that as an ingredient.
Is babaganoush supposed to have a smokey flavor? Perhaps from roasting the eggplant? I don’t see this element in your recipe, so I wonder.
thanks,
Lisa says
This is the best recipe I’ve found for baba ganouj yet! Thanks for sharing!
Alexandria Drzazgowski says
Well this comment just made my day, Lisa! I’m so glad that you loved the recipe. Thanks for trying it out. Let me know if you cook any other dishes from the blog, I’d love to hear what you think!