I adore incorporating sauces and dips into my meals, a common practice in both Swedish and Middle Eastern cuisines. Baba ganoush, an eggplant-based dip, is a family favorite. We frequently prepare it for celebrations as it serves as an excellent side dish or as part of a meza. Typically, a meza includes kebabs, grilled meats, various salads such as fattoush or tabbouleh, and bread. Baba ganoush can also be enjoyed simply with pita bread. My personal recipe always includes Greek yogurt to enhance its creaminess.
Ingredients:
1 aubergine
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp greek yoghurt
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp tahini paste
pinch of salt
Method:
1. Start by piercing the aubergine with a fork in several places. Then, if you have a gas stove, grill it directly on the gas hob, or alternatively, bake it in the oven under the grill setting until it becomes very soft and the skin is charred.
2. Allow it to cool, then peel away the charred skin, which should come off easily. Place the aubergine in a bowl and mash it thoroughly. It should resemble the photo shown below.
3. Incorporate the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth using a handheld mixer.
4. Once prepared, serve it chilled in a small bowl and sprinkle pomegranate seeds on top. The sweetness of the seeds complements the saltiness of the dip beautifully. I adore this sweet and salty combination. Typically, I serve it with pita bread, but feel free to use any vegetables you prefer, simply cut them into sticks for dipping.
Those days I am home alone, I tend to make me something very easy or most likely a salad for dinner. I had done an aubergine dip and wanted to eat it with greens and vegetable. Since we have not done a big food shopping yet I just chose what we had left in the fridge. The outcome was lovely. The sweetness from the pomegranate and saltiness from the dip and the freshness from the vegetables, was a match made in heaven. I will def to more of this dip and it goes very well to include in a meza. Other lovely things to serve it with is hummus, kubas, grilled chicken and kebabs or a tabbouleh salad.
Ingredients:
Baba ganoush dip (aubergine dip)
carrot sticks
olives
cherry tomatoes
lettuce
pita bread
Method:
1. Serve the aubergine dip with various greens and vegetables of your choice together with pita bread.
From the north of Iran, around the Caspian sea comes this lovely light dish, Mirza Ghasemi. First time I tasted it, was during a family dinner at a Persian restaurant. We ordered the dip as a starter. It was so delicious and tasty that afterwards I could simply not forget about this dish. I had to try it myself and did some research online. Luckily I found a great videoclip on youtube (see the video below) and gave it a go myself.
It is such a light yet meaty dip, which is usually the case when you use aubergine in a recipe. It adds great flavors to this dish especially since you grill the aubergine. Mirza Ghasemi is very versatile as you can have it as a light lunch, appetizer or side dish. It works very well as a starter in a Mediterranean menu. It is another simple dish that takes no time to make and is simply divine.
I have to say that it was somewhat hard to find an authentic recipe online, as different people followed different recipes. Some added garlic to it, some did not add onions at all and some used eggs in it as well. This specific recipe that I am using here was chosen simply because it has the same taste and texture as the Mirza Ghasemi I had in the Persian restaurant and fell in love with it.
Ingredients
1,5 tbsp oil
1 aubergine, diced
2 small onions, diced
2 tomatoes, diced,
salt and pepper
Chili flakes
1,5 tsp tomato puree
(I also added a spice mix from Kurdistan which goes really well with fried tomatoes and onions, but can be skipped.)
Method:
1- Grill the aubergine over the fire if you use a gas cooker or grill it in the oven until well cooked.
2- Dice the onions and fry them until golden brown and then add the diced tomatoes as well.
3- While the onions and tomatoes are frying, peel off the grilled skin from the aubergine and dice it as well and then add it to the mix once the onions and tomatoes have been cooking for about 5 minutes on medium heat.
4- If the mix becomes to dry add 1,5 tbsp of water and also add 1,5 tsp of tomato puree. Season the mix with the spices and stir well. Let it cook on medium heat for about another 5 minutes. Then remove it from the heat and mash it with a food mixer. Let it simmer for another 5 minutes before serving.
5- Serve with pita bread or freshly baked naan bread.
The following youtube clip is the inspiration for this lovely aubergine dip.
