Baba Ghanoush

Baba ghanoush is a Levantine appetizer made from roasted eggplant combined with olive oil, lemon juice, seasonings and tahini. The eggplant is traditionally roasted, baked or broiled over an open flame before peeling, so that the pulp turns soft and takes on a smoky taste. The dish is claimed across the wider Levant and Middle East, including Iraqi, Armenian, Syrian, Jordanian, Israeli, Lebanese, Palestinian, Greek, Egyptian, Tunisian and Turkish cuisines, and it functions as a meze, or starter, commonly served with pita bread or alongside a main meal. It became especially prominent in Israeli food culture, where it was adopted as a meat substitute during the austerity period of 1949 to 1959 and later became a cultural icon of the national cuisine; the name itself combines the Arabic baba, a term of endearment for father, with ghannuj, whose meaning is debated but is sometimes rendered as father of coquetry.