Red Bell Baba

I have this Mediterranean dipping sauce theme happening in my fridge right now what with a fresh batch of beet hummus, and now this ramped up baba ghanoush .  Much to Eric's chagrin, I also reek of garlic.  GOOD TIMES.

Red Bell Baba (Ghanoush)
1 large red bell pepper
2 medium eggplants
3 tbsp  Tahini
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp salt
juice of 1-2 lemons
2 tbs fresh parsley

Pierce the eggplants all over with a fork.  Place the bell pepper and the eggplants on your BBQ or under the broiler; turn until all sides are blackened.  Remove and allow to cool enough to handle.  Remove the skin from the pepper and discard. Slice the eggplants in half, and scoop out the meat.

In a food processor, combine the tahini and lemon juice until frothy, 30 seconds or so.   Add the rest of the ingredients, the eggplant meat, and the pepper flesh to the tahini mixture in the food processor. Use a pulse method to combine everything as you don't want to liquefy this; you are looking for a well blended, but chunky texture - learn from my mistake and mince or fine chop your garlic before adding to the food processor or else you end up with garlic bombs.  Not necessarily a bad thing.

Yield: about 3.5 cups.  186 cals per cup.

So the rest of dinner was left over Quinoa Veg Loaf, baby artichokes (prepped, boiled, then broiled with salt and lemon) and some collard greens (boiled in water with garlic, salt and vinegar for 20 minutes, drained, topped with Tabasco) and celery for the eating of the baba. 

Eric's dinner: Juice.