I’m easing back into blogging after an unintentional hiatus. It seemed good to start with the thing I prepare most regularly at work: crudite platters.
I cut up veggies and make dips (hummus/eggplant) every day. I never did either of these things until I started cooking for the family I work for. I’m all about it now.
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I generally make my own hummus and baba ghanoush. I’ll save the hummus recipe for later, but I’m pretty sure the eggplant recipe is adapted from Smitten Kitchen. That said, I was having trouble finding this recipe on her site, so maybe I’m wrong (my apologies for not knowing the exact source).
Eggplant Dip:
2 medium eggplants
1 white or yellow onion – small dice
3-4 cloves garlic – minced
1 cup greek yogurt
Lemon juice
Salt and pepper
Preheat oven, 375 degrees.
Poke holes in the eggplant(s) with a fork, and place on a baking sheet. Put the eggplants in the oven, and let them bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the eggplant is deflated and the skin is wrinkly and brown.
Remove the eggplant, let it cool.
Scoop out the insides, discard the skin.
Put the eggplant into a colander, let the liquid from the eggplant drain. Eggplants contain A LOT of liquid. Watery dip=gross.
While that’s happening, small dice an onion and mince your garlic. In a pan, sautee the onion with salt until golden brown. Add the garlic and cook it with the onion until it too is slightly brown (for a more garlicky flavor, don’t brown the garlic, just cook it slightly). Add strained eggplant to the pan, and let it mingle with the onion and garlic. You only need to cook this another minute or so; you just want the eggplant to absorb as much of the onion/garlic flavor as possible.
Remove the mixture and let it cool (stick it in the freezer if you’re impatient – I am).
Once cooled, use an immersion blender or regular blender to puree the mixture.
Add yogurt, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.
I like to make big batches of this because it’s time consuming and delicious.
*Sadly, eggplant dip is not pictured. That’s two different kinds of hummus.
**The beautiful looking magenta veggie is watermelon radish. It’s in season in Cali right now, so so so delicious.