2 large eggplants (or 3 medium)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 ½ – 2 tablespoons lemon juice, to your own taste
2 tablespoons tahini
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup chopped parsley
Step one is to cook the eggplants. The easiest method is to do this is on your BBQ. I lay the whole eggplants on the grill and put the hood of the BBQ down to capture the heat. The eggplants don’t need oiling first. I don’t prick them as without the pricks they cook a little quicker and get an excellent smokey flavour which is what you want for a tasty Baba Ganoush. But without pricking you do run the risk that the eggplants may burst on the BBQ. This has happened to me but I still take the risk for the flavour. Keep an eye on them and turn them regularly to cook all sides. They should take around 30 minutes but you want them well cooked. The outside skin should be charred and crispy and the eggplant should be falling apart when you take it off the grill. This will mean the flesh is well cooked on the inside.
I let the eggplants rest and cool down for approximately 15 minutes and then open up the skin with a knife and carefully remove the flesh into a bowl. Discard the skins.
Some recipes say to then drain the eggplant in a colander for an hour or so to remove the extra liquid created by the steam. The steam can make the Baba Ganoush watery and you can lose that great smokey flavour you have worked hard to get. Alternatively, you can use a salad spinner to remove the excess water, much like you would with a lettuce but I have found neither of these methods necessary. I can usually tell looking at the flesh once removed from the skin if it looks watery or not.
Add the eggplant flesh into a large bowl and add the minced garlic and lemon juice. You can use a food processor at this point to easily blend the ingredients but I prefer to do it by hand to keep some texture in the flesh. As the flesh is really soft you can mix the ingredients together with a fork. Stir it all around in the bowl like you would stirring eggs you are about to scramble. Then mix in the tahini. Gradually drizzle in the olive oil stirring as you go to blend it in well. The mixture will go creamy. To finish mix in the parsley. Transfer to a serving bowl and drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil.
