Familiar dip or rather something unusual? Check out this Baba Ganoush recipe that’s a dip like any other, yet more jovial!

We humans are real suckers for familiar things. Sure, our attention is always grabbed by something that is unusual but few of us like to try new things and risk failure, humiliation or worse, a bad meal.

Apparently, our dislike to change can be overpowered whenever we find out that everybody else is doing that thing. Once new things become so widespread that we get familiar with it, we are happily jump onto the bandwagon.

This is the reason, we are constantly bombarded with various adverts all day, every day so when we need to solve a specific problem, we can choose the familiar solution for it.

Luckily though, we don’t accept every word as wisdom from random strangers. We have our protective mechanisms -developed over thousands of years living with fellow humans who didn’t always look after our best interest- that doubts anything comes from unfamiliar people.

Yet, as strange as it seems, we can be made into thinking, people are trustworthy simply by dressing them up like we do, so we happily accept the advice of a paid actor telling us about the effectiveness of the newest laundry pod.

Apparently though, we don’t always trust ourselves so we wouldn’t accept advise from somebody looking like us if there is a question about more serious things like health, banking solutions or chef’s knives.

We need to hear things coming from paid actors who are dressed up like doctors, bankers, or chefs to believe that the advertised products are good for our health, wealth, or slices tomatoes like a light saber.

Even when we are dead set of changing our life and turn a page in our recipe books to go paleo, gluten free, keto, or whatever diet craze promises to lean us down with no suffering, we so bitterly clinch to our past favorites as much disappointment they make when trying them out on a keto diet.

Once we realize though that our success for a different life doesn’t require shaping ourselves to the world but simply choosing a different world to live in, our journey will be not just much easier but much happier too.

Baba ghanoush is a Mediterranean condiment that’s used as a lighthearted dip for pita. If anyone has ever heard about hummus, also a Mediterranean dip, the similarities between the two will be striking.

Of course, since hummus is made of chickpeas and Baba Ganoush from roasted eggplant the flavors of the two are markedly different but their appearance is not.

Apart from the obvious reason of flavors, where eggplant can fight an uphill battle, especially among super tasters, there are various valid reasons to pick one dip over the other.

If we don’t burn five thousand calories daily for a living, our calorie intake may need be under mindful supervision.

Hummus has more protein which is extremely useful to build and maintain muscles but it also has more calories. If we have other protein source in our diet, like meat or dairy but can’t resist dipping into some fun then Baba Ganoush is the way to spend our days.

Both, Hummus and Baba Ganoush, share similar main ingredients, namely olive oil, lemon juice and tahini.

Interestingly though, hummus could integrate a wide variety of ingredients without the fear to lose its identity, Baba Ganoush on the other hand was to rigid to accept any deviation from its roots. Adding garlic, pepper and maybe a bit of yogurt will turn Baba Ghanoush into Mutabbal a similarly popular dish around the Mediterranean.

Baba ghanoush’s name comes from Arabic “baba” which means “daddy” and “ghanoush” that is roughly translates to “indulged” so we may find the meaning of the dish along the lines of “daddy’s favorite.”

Will it manage to be our favorite remains to be seen until our first dive, but if we have learnt anything from our relationship with the eggplants then probably Baba Ganoush won’t leave us without emotions either.

Ingredients

2 lb / 1000g Eggplant
1 teaspoon / 5g Salt
2 cloves / 6g Garlic
2 tablespoons / 30g Lemon juice
¼ cup / 50g Tahini
⅓ cup / 80g Extra virgin olive oil
¼ teaspoon / 0.5g Cumin
¼ teaspoon / 0.5g Paprika
2 tablespoons / 8g Parsley (cut)

How to make Baba ganoush

Traditionally, eggplants for baba ganoush are roasted over open fire. So if our kitchen is still equipped with an infamous gas stove, we can simply scorch our eggplants over the flames, like we were right next to the shores of the Mediterranean sea. Otherwise, we can use our oven or our favorite skillet to roast the eggplants out of their skin. Cut them into half or quarter them if too big.
Heat skillet to medium high, pour some oil and then put the eggplants skin down. Roast until the flesh of the eggplant near the skin starts to soften and changes color. This can take a couple of minutes so be patient. Increasing the heat to high isn’t the best of ideas as it will cause the oil to smoke badly.
Flip the eggplants over and roast until it gets a nice sear.
If we have quartered the eggplants then we have one more side to roast then they are ready to be taken out.
They are hot so handle them with care. Hold the skin firmly then simply spoon the inside off.
Sprinkle them with salt then place them aside for 20 minutes.
Squeeze out some more of the remaining liquid by hand.
Put the eggplant, garlic, lemon juice, tahini, extra virgin olive oil, cumin and paprika into a food processor to combine them into a uniform paste.
Extra virgin olive oil should make it more stiff just like it’s happening with mayonnaise while adding back a bit more of the squeezed out eggplant juice, thinner. Dress it with freshly cut parsley, serve with homemade pita bread.