Baba ganoush with coconut is a Lebanese and east-Mediterranean dish with a twist. The name translates from Arabic literally as ‘spoiled daddy’. In the Sephardic Jewish kitchen they know this dish as salat hatzilim, eggplant salad. Here we make it in the traditional way, but at the end we add some coconut-cream or -milk, which makes the dish softer and slightly fusion. This is a healthy appetizer, that is best enjoyed with crostini or pita bread. Make enough, as this is delicious! And festive, creamy and yummi!
The art of making Baba ganoush with coconut
Baba ganoush is made of charred or smoked eggplant, tahin (sesame paste), garlic, lemon juice and some spices. The charring can happen in a gas flame of your stove, followed by some 20 min under the grill of your oven. Likewise you can use your barbeque smoker to get the right result. Keep an eye on it, otherwise you end up with char. Here we use garlic that has been slowy heated in olive oil, which makes the taste softer than raw garlic. We use freshly ground cumin, some Thai sriracha sauce for heat and then finish off with some coconut cream or milk. This makes for a creamy and delicious appetizer. You can store the baba ganoush with coconut for a day or three in the fridge.
Special equipment
a kitchen blender helps, although not perse required
Baba ganoush with coconut
Ingredients
for the grilled eggplant
- 2 medium sized egg plants
to make the dish
- 1/4 cup tahin (sesame paste)
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup coconut milk or coconut cream
- flesh of the grilled eggplants, drained from juices
- touch of Thai sriracha sauce can be replaced by some other spicy source
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves
- dash ground cumin seeds
- grind of the pepper mill
- sea salt to taste
- dash smoked paprika powder
- some chopped parsley optional
Instructions
grilling and preparing the egg plant
- rinse the eggplants and either grill or broil them in the top part of your oven at 250 C and or work them through your stove's gas flame for several minutes, until they become charred and soft. Check on them regularly as the eggplant may char and lose all its moisture beyond use.
- If there are juices left, drain these and either discard them or take the time to concentrate them by boiling of water and the add them back to the egg plant meat
- Cut half of the eggplant meat in course pieces and reserve half for the blender
making the dip/salad
- Clean the garlic and heat in olive oil on the lowest heat level, until the garlic becomes yellow to light brown. Then take the garlic and reserve the oil
- Add the sesame paste (tahin), half of the reserved egg plant meat to the blender; give a couple of short pulses of the blender
- Add the lemon juice, the two garlic cloves and pulse.
- Then add the spices and salt and half of the coconut milk and mix
- Take the contents out and mix in with a fork the reserved coarsely shredded egg plant meat. Bring to taste and consistency with more coconut milk and salt
- Before serving, make circular seams in the mixture and sprinkle the garlic- olive oil on to these. Sprinkle whole mixture with smoked paprika powder and parsley flakes
- Serve at room temperature with (warm) crostini or pita bread
- Store left-overs for maximum 3 days sealed-off from air in the fridge.
Notes
Food allergy & intolerance information: sesame seeds
Remarks
Store the mixture in the fridge, closed off from the air for several days
