Buddha’s ganoush

Happy 2017! Better late than never 🙂 we all set some goals before 2016 packed its bags and thankfully left us, and one of mine is to start eating mindfully, I do believe my body will reward me for my choice of nourishment.I don’t proclaim to be a complete healthy eater, but I think it’s important to start the year off on a healthy note, healthy body and healthy mind.

Okay, I have to admit I sometimes eat like a 10 year old that has been left alone at home for an evening of junk food eating and binge watching 80’s movies. However, I find as I’m getting older I feel my body needs more nutrition than those days after eating junk that I cram my body full of only to resume the junk eating the next week or so… Not very smart, I know.

As an avid Woolworths Taste magazine reader, I could not resist trying out this recipe for myself. This recipe is out of the book Plentiful by Paul Atkinson,Chris and Louis Van Loon and Angela Shaw.This recipe is ideal for snacking with flat breads, (my favourite) crunchy radishes, carrot sticks or some rice crackers. Serve as a dip at your next laid back lunch with family or friends, it’s something different and best of all it’s super easy to make at home. I used my trusty NutriBullet to blitz everything up in just one cup. The consistency is a velvety smooth dip texture and taste is reminiscent to its cousin hummus, because of the tahini paste, lemon juice, olive oil and garlic.
Buddha’s Ganoush recipe:

Ingredients:

-2 large aubergines/brinjals halved lengthways

-5T olive oil, plus extra

-2T toasted ground cumin

-2 cloves garlic

-1T tahini paste

-1/2 bunch parsley

-3T Lemon juice

Sea salt and ground pepper to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Halve the brinjals/aubergines lengthways and prick the aubergines all over using a fork, then rub with some olive oil.

Place aubergines in roasting dish and roast for 45 minutes turning them halfway through. Once cooked, remove from oven and allow to cool completely before scooping out all of the flesh from the aubergines with a spoon. Toast the cumin in a hot pan until fragrant and darker in colour but shouldn’t turn black(shake every few minutes when toasting to avoid burning) place all of the aubergines flesh into a food processor or NutriBullet with the olive oil, garlic, tahini, cumin and parsley, then blitz. Add the lemon juice a little at a time, so as to avoid the mixture becoming too runny. Season to taste and serve with chopped radishes or with some fresh flat breads.
Happy mindful eating!