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This baba ganoush is restaurant-quality: smoky, creamy, and super flavorful. Easy to make, it’s naturally vegan, Whole30, and low carb, too. This Middle Eastern and Mediterranean appetizer is one of our all-time favorite dip recipes!

Baba ganoush in a bowl with pita chips

What Makes This Recipe So Good

  • Baba ganoush (or baba ghanoush, or baba ghanouj) generally starts with grilled eggplant, but sometimes you don’t have that perfect grill-weather… or even a grill! Never fear. Oven-roasting the eggplant gives the recipe an incredible, deep, rich flavor. You could add a little liquid smoke to give it even more of that grilled smokiness, but I don’t find that you really need it in this recipe!
  • The food processor (or blender) gives you amazingly silky, creamy baba ganoush with just a few simple ingredients. There’s no dairy or added sugar in this recipe, either!
  • You can serve this with pita or fresh veggies; it’s perfect either way! Try it as a mezze platter for a last-minute get-together: add a variety of olives (try green stuffed with garlic, kalamata tossed in fresh herbs, and dry-cured black olives); a block of feta cubed and tossed in a bit of olive oil and some fresh herbs; a few stuffed grape leaves (dolma; dolmata) from the olive bar; and a bowl of baba ganoush with pita wedges and crudité. Easy, refreshing summer entertaining in a heartbeat!
  • Baba ganoush is a great make-ahead option if you’re meal prepping or just like to snack on leftovers! Refrigerate it in an airtight container and it’ll keep up to 5 days.

Chef’s Tips

  • This recipe is a loose one, which means you can really dial in each ingredient to make your personally perfect baba ganoush! Your eggplants may be a different size than mine, so you’ll want to adjust the tahini, salt, and lemon juice accordingly. My recommendation is to start low and add smaller increments until you’ve reached a flavor that you really love. Does your baba feel a bit heavy and sticky? Try a bit more lemon. Does it feel flat, one-dimensional? Try a bit more tahini. Does it taste properly smoky and not heavy, but just not quite “there“? Add a bit more salt.
  • Piercing the skin of the eggplants is a simple but important step, so don’t skip it! The piercings let the liquid drain from the eggplant so your baba ganoush isn’t thin and watery. Oh, and it lessens the chances your eggplants will explode in your oven, so… Super important! To drain them even more, set a metal baking rack in your baking sheet and broil eggplants on top of the rack (instead of directly on the pan).
  • Setting a bowl upside down over the broiled eggplant traps heat and moisture, creating a steam that’ll soften the skins of the eggplants and make them suuuuper easy to remove! Trust me, you’ll thank me for this tip.
Close up photo of baba ganoush in a white bowl

Try These Other Dips & Appetizers, Too

Close up photo of baba ganoush in a white bowl
Recipe By: Cheryl Malik
5 from 9 votes

Baba Ganoush

Prep 5 minutes
Cook 45 minutes
Total 50 minutes
This baba ganoush is restaurant-quality: smoky, creamy, and super flavorful. Easy to make, it's naturally vegan, Whole30, and low carb, too. This Middle Eastern and Mediterranean appetizer is one of our all-time favorite dip recipes!
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6

Equipment

  • Broiler
  • large baking sheet
  • large mixing bowl
  • standard blender or food processor

Ingredients

  • 2 medium eggplants any kind with dark purple skin, approximately 1 ½-2 pounds total
  • 2-4 cloves garlic peeled, smashed
  • ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons tahini
  • 2-4 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1-2 teaspoons salt to taste
  • olive oil for garnish, optional
  • parsley for garnish, optional

Instructions

  • Preheat broiler on high. Use fork to pierce eggplants all over.
  • Place eggplants on baking sheet and set directly under broiler. Broil eggplants approximately 45 minutes, turning periodically, until blackened all over.
    Broiled eggplant on a baking sheet
  • Remove from oven. Set large bowl over eggplants to capture steam. Let cool, covered with bowl, until room or handling temperature.
  • Once eggplants have cooled, remove bowl and set aside. Remove top of eggplant and peel away eggplant skin. Discard.
  • Place peeled eggplants in blender or food processor. Add garlic, tahini, lemon juice, and paprika.
    Ingredients for baba ganoush in food processor
  • Blend until smooth. Taste and add more garlic, tahini, or lemon juice as desired. Stir in 1 teaspoon salt. Taste again. Add additional salt, if desired.
  • Transfer baba ganoush to serving bowl. Serve warm, or refrigerate until chilled. Garnish with parsley and a drizzle of olive oil, if desired. Serve with vegetables (celery, carrots, etc.) and/or pitas or pita chips.
  • I recommend starting with the smaller quantities of each spice, then tasting the mixture and adding more if desired. You can always add more, but you can’t take it back out if you use too much!
 
Recipe yields approximately 6 servings. Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving, not including any foods used in serving. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by 6. Result will be the weight of one serving.

Approximate Information for One Serving

Serving Size: 1servingCalories: 130calProtein: 4gFat: 8gSaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 396mgPotassium: 435mgTotal Carbs: 13gFiber: 5gSugar: 6gNet Carbs: 8gVitamin A: 210IUVitamin C: 6mgCalcium: 38mgIron: 1mg
Nutrition Disclaimers
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.

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Cheryl Malik

In addition to being a certified health coach, certified yoga instructor, and mom of 3, Cheryl is also the recipe developer, editor-in-chief, food photographer, and passionate foodie behind 40 Aprons. Having spent the last 10+ years as a food blogger, she's become known for her flavorful recipes, detailed instructions, gorgeous photography, and down-to-earth approach to food and cooking in general.

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27 Comments

  3. I’m about to make this for the third time in three weeks because it is just THAT AMAZING. I love it love it love it. It’s such a perfect blend of smoky, lemony, garlicky, goodness, just like you said! It’s now a staple in my house- I make a batch early in the week and store it in the fridge, and it gets eaten on toast for breakfast and rice crackers for snacks all week. It’s particularly amazing spread on toast with a thick slice of tomato, some thin slices of red onion, a few squeezes of lemon juice, and some salt and pepper on top. Oh my. Thanks heaps for sharing!5 stars

    Reply

    1. I’m so glad you like it as much as we do!! Thank you for making and for taking the time to come back and let me know you loved it!

      Reply

  5. Howdy! Our local farmers market had eggplants and I bought 4! With 2 I made baba ganoush from another recipe I found on Pinterest. It was great but all that slicing and salting before roasting was a drag. I cut one big one and two smaller ones in half and placed cut sides down on a big cookie sheet, then pricked all over with a strong fork. Broiled for 15 minutes as you suggest and switched from broiler to oven at 350. Five minutes to go, and I’ll stop by and let you know how this worked out. Recipe looks great!5 stars

    Reply

      1. It was wonderful! I brought it to the end-of-summer tennis social today knowing our Lebanese friends would be there. It got all thumbs up! Definitely will make this again!

        Here are my thoughts: (1) Mine was a little thin in texture, perhaps from the moisture weeping off the eggplant on the cookie sheet. Next time I’ll place the pulp in a sieve to drain before mixing everything in the food processor; (2) It was more orange than the one in your photos, from the paprika, which I added with reckless abandon, because it was smoked and I love that flavor. So a couple of people thought it was hummus before trying it because they hadn’t heard me explain it was baba. Nevertheless, it was great, and cutting the eggplants in half before roasting cut side down saved time because I didn’t have to turn them and could focus on making dinner.5 stars

        Reply

        1. Ah! Yes. Perhaps since I leave mine whole, the moisture that seeps out from the fork pricks is easier to leave behind, when I go to blend it all. But halving them is a great way to make the whole process easier! Your paprika story is too funny 🙂 Reckless abandon.. ha! Glad you liked it! If it got a thumbs up from a bunch of Lebanese friends then that’s a great compliment! Thank you so much for reading and commenting 🙂

          Reply

  6. Am I missing something? I have a plant full of eggplants that I need to use soon and I really would love to make this. I just don’t see the recipe on the page! Please help!

    Reply

    1. So sorry about that! When we merged blogs, about half of our recipes stayed behind.. grr. All fixed now!

      Reply

    1. Woot! We just keep ours in the fridge in a super airtight container. Other than that I don’t really have any tips. It should keep for a while, though!

      Reply

      1. That was sort of where I was headed … we’ll see how it goes! Thanks! I found you through Pinterest, but took a spin through your other recipes — lots of yummy stuff to try now! 🙂

        Reply

    1. I’m not either, at all! I always think it’s so weird and spongy. But it totally transforms here. You’ll love it 🙂

      Reply

  10. Delicious! How did you make the beautiful olive oil drizzle look so perfect? I can never get mine to look like that! I’ve never actually had baba ganoush before – I’m a strict eggplant avoider – but this looks like something I could get on board with. Plus, I’m always trying to make myself like new things. Maybe this is a good place to start. It’s a much better option than mushrooms. I mean, it’s a dip, and you make it look and sound so appetizing! I love it.

    Reply

    1. Ha! There’s probably a 1/4 cup of oil in that poor little bowl of baba ganoush, trying to get the drizzle to look right! The key is lots of peaks from the dip.. ha. Anyway, I’m the same way! I never order eggplant uh, on purpose? So I was so shocked when I loved this. It really doesn’t taste like eggplant at all–promise. You should try it! It’s so great for summer

      Reply

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