Smoky Baba Ghanoush

In Arabic baba ghanoush means “pampered daddy.” While I’m not sure I want to touch that one—by some accounts, “daddy” was the sultan, and the pamperer a member of his harem who—in finding her way to the palace kitchen—also found a place in her master’s heart. 

Mythology aside, baba ghanoush is the smoked eggplant spread found on mezze appetizer plates throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East along with hummus, olives, whipped feta, taramasalata, garlicky labneh, and other small-dish delights.

You might think of baba as the sophisticated epicurean cousin of more workaday but entirely respectable hummus. Both call for blending a main ingredient—chickpeas for hummus and eggplant for baba ghanoush—with tahini, garlic, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, and salt. But while a well-prepared hummus dusted with ground cumin offers an earthy, earthly pleasure, it can never soar to the heavens like a silken, sultry, smoky baba ghanoush.

For baba, the eggplant, fully baked, is charred over the open flame of a gas stove or outdoor grill to produce a distinctly sweet-smoky flavor. Two years ago New York passed an ordinance outlawing gas cooktops and ranges in most new buildings by 2026—for a number of good reasons I can’t deny. So I hope I don’t sound cavalier when I say that my workhorse gas Thermidor and I aren’t going anywhere fast. 

If you do have a gas range or access to an outdoor grill, here’s how to make baba. Choose bright shiny eggplants, medium in size and as uniform as possible in diameter. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put the eggplants on a baking tray and prick them in several places. This is important because eggplants contain air pockets that —under pressure of heat— could cause them to explode. Creating little holes that lets the air escape does the trick. 

Place the eggplants in the center of the oven to bake. After about 45 minutes, check to see if the skin is puckered and the eggplants have pretty much collapsed. If yes, remove them from the oven and place them directly – one each – onto a grate of your stovetop over an open flame. For some reason the stem seems to cool more quickly than the flesh, so you can use that as your handle. Within seconds, you’ll notice a tantalizing sweet-smoky fragrance wafting through your kitchen as flames start to char the skin of the eggplant.

When the underside is thoroughly black and charred (check by gently lifting with a spoon or spatula) turn the now flattish eggplant over and continue to let the flames lap the skin on the other side. 

Full disclosure: this part of the process may be messy. If the skin splits (not your fault) some clear liquid will pool around the burner. You won’t miss this liquid in the dish. Later, you can easily mop it up with a damp sponge. 

When the skin is fully charred, place the eggplants in a non-reactive dish. Once they’re cool enough to handle, use your fingers to peel away the charred skin, exposing the now- smoky flesh, which you’ll spoon into a clean bowl. If some flesh is stuck to the skin, scrape it off and mix with the rest. Add the tahini, lemon juice, and salt. Mix vigorously with a wire whisk. Resist the urge to use a food processor or immersion blender. Unlike hummus, baba should be textured and somewhat variegated in color.

As an appetizer, baba ghanoush can be served before almost any kind of dinner. Of course it’s a perfect starter for Middle Eastern dishes like my recently posted Lebanese Lamb Shanks and (Murdered) Green Beans. So go ahead. Pamper your daddy. Your mommy. Your significant other, your kids, your friends. To be sure, baba ghanoush doesn’t come together by rubbing your hands on a magic lamp. But on occasion, this mysteriously delicious appetizer can be worth the time, effort, and even the bit of a mess. 

Smoky Baba Ghanoush

Ingredients:

• 2 medium eggplants
• 3 fat cloves of garlic, grated into a paste
• 1/4 cup tahini or to taste
• Juice of 1-2 lemons
• Kosher salt
• Olive oil and sweet paprika for serving 

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400. 
• Place the eggplants on a baking dish and prick each in a few places with the tines of a fork. 
• Bake for about 45 minutes or until the skin has puckered and the eggplants have somewhat collapsed. 
• Out of the oven, place each eggplant directly on the grate of a burner, over a medium-to-high flame. 
• Char the eggplants until the bottom skin is blackened and brittle, about 10 minutes. Then turn them over and char the other side. If the second-side skin doesn’t get quite as brittle as the first, that’s fine. 
• Place the eggplants in a non-reactive dish and let cool until you can work by hand to peel off the charred skin and spoon the smoky flesh into a bowl. You might find that a few small pieces of charred skin have stuck to the flesh. Pick them out or, if they’re quite small, leave them. 
• While the eggplant is still warm, add the tahini, garlic, lemon juice, and salt whisking vigorously to blend. If it seems very thick, add a tablespoon or two of warm water. 

For serving, spread the baba out on a low flat plate and drizzle with olive oil. You can dust with a little sweet paprika, just for color. Let guests scoop it up with pita bread cut into triangles, pita crackers, and—in Lebanese fashion—scoop-sized layers of a sweet white onion that has been refrigerated for at least a day.

Photos by Carolyn Swartz