Baba Ga-Hummus! (Roasted Eggplant Hummus)

I absolutely love baba ghanoush, that lovely middle eastern cousin of hummus, featuring eggplant as the star. So I bought an eggplant the other day intending to make some. As I pulled the roasted eggplant out of the fridge I remembered that last time I made baba ganouch with just one eggplant, it really didn’t make enough. Hmmm… what’s a girl to do? I started thinking about the similarities between this and hummus–and they are very similar–so what if I combined the two? Adding chickpeas to baba ganoush basically makes it a roasted eggplant hummus, and really, what could be better than that? So I modded the recipe up a bit (not that I really had a recipe, I was just winging it) and this is what I came up with. It’s not traditional at all, but MAN is it tasty! And you have the eggplant already roasted, it takes just minutes to whip up.

This works wonderfully as a dip or sidedish, or, as I did for lunch today, spoon a bunch into a tortilla or other soft flatbread, top with sliced cucumber and field greens, and fold up and eat!

Baba Ga-Hummus

makes ~4 cups

Ingredients:

  • 1 eggplant, roasted -see below*
  • 1 can chick peas
  • 1 large garlic clove (or 2 small)
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • 1 Teas ground cumin
  • 2 Tbsp peanut butter
  • 1/2 teas kosher salt
  • 1/2 teas black pepper
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil

*Roasting Eggplant: This can be done a day or 2 in advance. Quarter lengthwise your whole unpeeled eggplant. Brush flesh with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt. Line your baking dish with foil, and grease with olive oil to prevent sticking.  Place eggplant quarters flesh side down.  Roast in a ~350 – 400 degree oven for about 10-15 min, then turn so the other flesh side is down (this helps to prevent the sticking).  Roast for 10-15 more minutes or until eggplant is soft enough to scoop easily from the skin. (This may take up to 40 min depending on the size of your eggplant.)  When cool enough to handle, scrape the flesh off the skin, and refrigerate the flesh.
Tips:

  • This much eggplant will just fit in my small toaster oven, so I like to use that to avoid heating up the whole kitchen to roast an eggplant.
  • If cooking something else for dinner the night before that requires the oven, just toss your eggplant in there.  The temp doesn’t have to be exact.

Combine all ingredients in your food processor, and process until smooth and creamy. Note, if you salted your eggplant heavily, you may want to taste before adding the salt, but I salted mine prior to roasting, and this amount seemed to work. If need be, add more salt. Also, if I hadn’t run out of fresh cilantro last night, I would have totally thrown some in here. So consider that as a possible addition.

Serve with chips, soft pitas or other flatbread, and/or slices of fresh cucumber.

Or use as the star of a sandwich wrap!