Baba Ghanoush

middle-eastern food · eggplant · dips and spreads

Smoky eggplant base. Baba ghanoush starts with eggplant that gets roasted over an open flame or in the oven until it's soft and charred on the outside, giving it a wonderful smoky flavor.

Charred for flavor. The traditional way to cook it is right over a flame so the skin gets blackened and bubbly, then you scoop out the soft insides and discard the burnt skin.

Creamy and smooth. The cooked eggplant gets mixed with olive oil, lemon juice, tahini (sesame paste), and spices to make a creamy dip that's full of tangy and earthy flavors.

A Middle Eastern favorite. It's a meze, which means a starter or side dish in Levantine cuisine, and people love serving it with pita bread for dipping or alongside other main dishes.

From the Levant region. This dish comes from the countries around the eastern Mediterranean Sea, including Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and other nearby areas.