Make it your own - Baba Ghanoush

Serves: 4
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Ready In: 15 minutes
Make Sure You Have: A gas stove with open flame

Ingredients:
1 medium eggplant (aubergine)
2 tablespoon tahini
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon smokey paprika
The juice of 1 lemon
½ teaspoon of garlic
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Pomegranate molasses
Pine nuts
Flat or pita breads

Directions:
1. Leave eggplant over an open flame for 8 minutes, turning over after 5 minutes. Remember to poke a hole in the eggplant to allow air to escape.

2. Scrape out the flesh of the eggplant into a bowl, avoid adding the skin.

3. Add tahini, spices, lemon, garlic, salt and oli, and mix together.

4. Serve with pomegranate molasses, pine nuts and flat breads.

Making it your own: Sage's thoughts:
1. Sage uses a generous amount of tahini in his baba ghanoush, to give it a delicious earthy flavor. This debate still rages among baba ghanoush fans everywhere...tahini, or no tahini: that is the question.

2. Sage likes to add a little smoked paprika, along with cumin, a tip he picked up from le Marais in Paris. What other spices would you use?

3. Sage likes to serve his baba ghanoush with pomegranate molasses and pine nuts, to give it texture and a delicious flavor. What about using fresh pomegranate seeds or whole chickpeas?

How are you going to make it your own?