Creamy Eggplant Hummus
Creamy Eggplant Hummus Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 1 hour Total time: 1 hour 5 mins Serves: 4 A perfect appetizer for parties, serve this creamy eggplant dip with pita, whole grain crackers, or challah bread. It would also complement grilled steak or roast chicken.
Ingredients
- 2 medium eggplants pricked a few times with a fork
- Few cloves of garlic
- 1 tablespoon tahini
- Freshly grated zest & juice of ½ to whole lemon
- ½ cup cooked chickpeas preferably homemade, plus a few chickpeas to garnish (read this post to cook them)
- 1 tablespoon chickpea cooking liquid see note
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Extra virgin olive oil to garnish (optional)
- Fresh mint as much as you’d like, chopped, to garnish (optional)
- Fresh pomegranate seeds to garnish (optional)
- Za’atar to garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Add the eggplants to a rimmed baking sheet. Bake at 350ºF for 30 minutes. Add the garlic to the pan. Bake for 30 minutes more, until eggplant is very soft when poked. It’ll collapse and shrivel a few minutes after coming out of the oven. Let cool.
- Once cooled, slip the skin off the eggplants, and peel garlic (it should easily pop out).
- (you can prepare the recipe up to this point one day in advance, and store eggplant and garlic in the fridge)
- Add the eggplant, garlic, tahini, lemon zest & juice, chickpeas, cooking liquid, and cumin to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until everything is thoroughly broken down. Season with salt and pepper. Process until very smooth.
- Spread the dip into a shallow serving bowl. Garnish with a generous drizzle of olive oil. Top with mint, pomegranate seeds, and za’atar. Serve immediately.