Easiest baba ghanoush recipe ever

This easy baba ganoush recipe came from my desire to do something with the brinjal sitting around the house. My husband hates the stuff, but I think it's one of the most underrated veggies on the planet. This super easy-to-make middle Eastern staple is high in fiber, manganese (good for bones, blood sugar and thyroid), B vitamins and copper. So eat up!

Serves 1 hungry person as a dish, 2 people as a snack

Ingredients

-1 medium to large brinjal (eggplant)

-2 cloves of garlic

-1 tbs of tahini

-1 tsp salt

-juice from 2 small lemons

-turmeric powder to taste (optional)

-Pomegranate seeds for garnish (optional)

-Stab the brinjal with a fork several times, just as you would for baking a potato.

-Heat your oven to 170 celsius, 350 Fahrenheit and stick the eggplant in there to bake for roughly 50 minutes.

-While baking, mince the garlic and set aside.

-Take out the eggplant and let it cool for at least 20 minutes. Otherwise, you’ll need fingertips of steel for the next step.

-Cut the eggplant in half and scoop out the gooey flesh.

-Place the flesh in a food processor (I use my hand blender) along with the garlic, tahini, 1 tsp salt, and lemon juice. Blend away!

-Once the contents are emptied into a bowl, manually add a pinch of turmeric and stir. Also taste and determine if you need more lemon juice, salt or turmeric.

-Garnish with pomegranate seeds.

-Serve with pita bread or whatever veggies your heart desires.

Cooking addendums:

Strongly consider letting the baba ganoush sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before serving (or devouring it by yourself, which is often what I do). This allows the spices to really set into the dip.

-Mince the garlic as finely as possible. The garlic won’t blend well in the food processor, so you want to avoid eating raw chunks of garlic.

-You can also add olive oil. If the tahini is too bitter, consider going half olive oil, half tahini.

I always eat my baba ganoush with sliced apples. There’s something irresistible about the sweet crunch of the fruit mixed with the eggplant! Other good dippings include sliced cucumber, carrot sticks, tomato wedges and bell pepper slices.