When Life Gives You Eggplants Make Baba Ghanouj

 
I'm flying off to Minneapolis this afternoon to do a little house shopping. It is certain to be a whirlwind - fly in Thursday, look at 11 houses on Friday, hopefully find our house on Friday so that I can have a run and see some family quick on Saturday, fly back to Austin early Sunday AM. I'm exhausted just typing it. I am also filled with all kinds of emotion and retrospection... We've basically been trying to move back to Minneapolis since last October, and now, suddenly, it's becoming a reality, a very real reality. 

All of this is just to say I'll be away from the blog for the weekend, but I shall return next week with tales of house selling and house buying. Until then I'll leave you with a recipe...

This week my garden over flows with eggplants, and I should be making Baba Ghanouj. Instead, well, I'm flying to Minneapolis to shop for a house.

This recipe originally appeared on Right Out Loud, it is worth reprising here.

Way back when, I worked in the sweetest little Egyptian restaurant stuck smack in the middle of a residential neighborhood in SE Minneapolis. From the owner and chef I learned that the best baba ghanouj has just four ingredients: Eggplants, parsley, garlic, and tahini.

I've tested and sized the following recipe for a single batch of about 1 and 1/2 cups.  It freezes well.

Baba Ghanouj

1 pound fresh eggplants, roasted
3 gloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup fresh parsley, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons organic tahini

To roast the eggplant: Wash and dry eggplants. Pierce skin several times with a fork to allow steam to escape and avoid exploding eggplants. Place in broiler, turn every few minutes, and cook until the skin is charred and the meat feels soft and tender. Let cool for several minutes before handling.

To make Baba Ghanouj: Once the roasted eggplants have cooled enough to handle, cut them in half lengthwise, and scrap the meat away from the skin and into a food processor. Add all other ingredients to food processor and give it a whirl. Process until a smooth creamy texture is achieved.

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

That's all there is to it, another super simple recipe. Again, I sized this recipe for household use, but by all means, if you have a lot of mouths to feed or a lot of eggplants, feel free to double or triple the recipe.

And don't forget to freeze some, preserving summer's bounty to be enjoyed over and over again.

Enjoy!