I used to love baba ganoush from Mamoun’s when I lived in New Haven. I know that there’s a Mamoun’s or two in NYC, but it’s just not the same when it’s not across the street from your apartment.
Vegan boyfriend has been inundated with produce from his CSA share, and can’t find use for everything he gets, which is how I ended up with 4 eggplants. I don’t actually care for eggplant (shocking, coming from the picky vegan, right?), but I do love it in that particular baba ganoush. I always figured that the reason I liked it so much was the amount of tahini. I’m pretty sure I was right.
So I made some myself!
It came out awesome.
Baba ganoush served with toasted pita bread. That’s sumac sprinkled on top, not paprika.
I didn’t have as much tahini on hand as I thought, but I had a lot of sesame seeds, and I have a food processor. (You can check out how to make your own over at Melomeals). It took this to a level that I don’t think store-bought could have done.
The only thing I would do differently next time (and given the amount of tahini and olive oil, this is a once-a-year kind of dish), is that I would not roast the eggplant whole. It was a pain to take out the seeds once it was roasted. There’s got to be a better way!
I wish I could give you a recipe, but I can give you a method. Roast eggplants (somehow get rid of seeds). Make tahini in food processor. Add roasted eggplant, a couple of minced cloves of garlic, olive oil as needed, and lemon juice as needed. Add salt as needed. This is really just about getting it to the taste you like- it’s totally okay to play with amounts.
So good.
