Bubala Baba Ganoush

Not the most traditional but some of the most delicious baba ganoush I've had. Bubala is a mediterranean restaurant that caught my eye in London last summer. I think it was the most delicious meal of the whole trip. I certainly overate the most.

I've always been annoyed with how slow and messy burning eggplants on the stove is. The first time I made this I finally realized I shouldn't be buying the big american globe eggplants. Look for small and thin ones like italian or asian eggplants. I also tried doing them under the broiler instead of on the stove burners and it worked great with much less cleanup.

The recipe calls for “6 medium aubergines (about 1.2kg (2lb 12oz) in total)” which means a “medium” eggplant to them is only 200g. I suspect what I usually see labeled medium is twice that big but now I'll have to measure and compare. Anyway, do the littlest ones you can find or suffer.

Taste notes:

• this came out really salty for me. Maybe I eyeballed the miso and it was too much? But be careful.
• I thought only half a clove of raw garlic sounded disappointing so I put in probably one large clove. It was fiery. Adding some lemon juice and letting it sit overnight made it delicious. But maybe don't get too eager with the garlic. And maybe do add some lemon, kind weird there isn't any acid in this recipe.
• the garnish recipe is based on having their curry oil in your pantry (blend curry leaves in oil, simmer 10min, strain). It is delicious that way but so is some nicely flavored olive oil.

• 1.2 kg (2.5 - 3 lbs) small eggplants
• 135 g tahini
• 35 g confit garlic, about 8 cloves - yes I did confit some garlic for this
• scant tsp salt - skip this at first?
• 1/2 clove garlic (really)
• 25 g white miso - maybe start with less
• fresh lemon juice - not in the original but I think it needs a bit

Garnish

• 1 T pine nuts
• 2-3 T canola oil
• 4 sprigs curry leaves
• 3 T curry leaf oil

1. Grill the eggplants to death over/under a flame. They should be totally charred outside and soft inside. I always find getting them soft inside takes much longer than claimed but for very small eggplants it might only take 5-10min. Let them cool in a colander and then discard the skins and drainage.
2. Blend the smoky soft eggplant flesh with the remaining (non-garnish) ingredients until smooth. Adjust taste to your preference.
3. For the garnish, dry toast pine nuts in a pan on the stove (I recommend this and olive oil even if you don't have curry leaves). If curry leaves, shallow fry them in the canola oil til crispy.
4. Serve baba ganoush with pine nuts, curry leaves, and curry/olive oil garnish.

originally submitted by jes_p on Apr 26, 2026