This aubergine tahini dip with a roasted garlic is exactly what doctor ordered for a rainy fall Sunday night. When all you want is to wrap yourself up in a plaid, watch a good movie and a have a glass of red. Aubergine dip is a great partner in crime for this sort of night because it is soft, smooth and comforting, with a pleasant smokey and roasted touch and a “garlicky” finish. And it works great on pretty much everything – pita bread, crackers, tortilla chips, vegetable slices, SPOON (I mean it!).
Recently I shared the recipe for the gluten free crunchy crackers, which are my latest baking addiction. So if you still haven’t tried it, I would really recommend you to fix this omission. Especially since there is no better match for this roasted aubergine tahini dip than home-baked crackers. Not to mention that both are healthy and good for you.
This roasted aubergine dip is really easy to make and it lasts several weeks in the refrigerator. So it’s a good idea to prepare the double amount and store a half for later. It tastes even better after a day or two in the fridge. But I have to admit I almost never managed to store it for later. Every time I prepared extra, we still ate it the same day. So to avoid the temptation I cook exactly what my conscious tells me to be a reasonable amount.
I guess this is pretty much the only tricky part about this recipe – stopping yourself from overeating 🙂 Otherwise, all you need is to roast garlic and aubergine, allow them to cool down a bit and then to blend them with tahini paste, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and some chili powder. In my opinion roasted garlic works way better in this recipe than a fresh garlic. I tried both and I find that roasted garlic makes the taste smoother and more interesting. But if you like when the presence of garlic is clear and intense, go for a fresh clove.
Yummmmm 🙂
Ingredients
- 1 large aubergine
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1,5 tablespoon of tahini paste
- 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
- 1/3 teaspoon of sea salt
- small pinch of chili powder and black pepper
- 1 tablespoon of chopped walnuts
- 1 tablespoon of finely chopped parsley leaves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
- Cut the eggplant into quarters lengthwise. Sprinkle generously with sea salt and allow it to drain for 20 min (this draws out excess moisture and the bitterness). Lightly rinse with water and dry the pieces of aubergine with paper towels.
- Place pieces of aubergine and unpeeled garlic cloves on a baking sheet, drizzle aubergine with olive oil, and roast until very tender, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
- Scoop the flesh of the aubergine with a spoon. Unpeel the garlic cloves.
- In a blender mix together aubergine, garlic, tahini paste, lemon juice, salt pepper and chili powder. Add chopped walnuts and parsley and mix with the spoon.
Leave a Reply