Appetizer Trifecta: Green Olive Tapenade, Hummus, and Baba Ghanoush.

Last week, I had a lovely surprise waiting for me when I got home from work.  My loving mother sent me a care package for my "birthday month," and in it was a new cookbook, a new apron, and some home made blueberry muffins (mmm).  This, coupled with my husband giving me my first food processor, made me want to take everything for a test drive this evening.  This new cookbook, entitled "The Spoonriver Cookbook" has really impressed me thus far.  It's not strictly a vegetarian cook book, BUT, the author of the cookbook, Brenda Langton, really focuses on using veggies to make satisfying, and naturally organic meals, instead of focusing on meat (by far, the majority of the recipes in this cookbook are vegetarian, and look great). Plus, my husband will enjoy the few meaty recipes in this book :-)

Tonight, using this new cookbook and my new food processor, I made three appetizers.  The first, baba ghanoush (bah-bah gah-new-sh) incorporated this great flavor of roasted eggplant.  The second, hummus, was fresh and familiar and a great go-to.  The third (and maybe our favorite) was the Green Olive Tapenade.  It was rich and full of flavor, and fantastic on toasted pita bread. 

I served all of this with sliced baguette, toasted pita, cucumber slices, tomato slices, and plenty of olive oil.

Baba Ghanoush 

Ingredients

1 medium-large eggplant
3 tablespoons tahini
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 cloves garlic, chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt, to taste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

1.  Roasting the eggplant.  You can do this a few ways.  If you have a gas range, roast the eggplant over the flames of the burner, turning it occasionally until the eggplant is charred everywhere.  Be careful when you turn it that you do not rupture the eggplant.  However, if you are like me, and have an electric range, use your oven to roast the eggplant.  Rub the outside of the eggplant lightly with oil, and stick it in a 350 degree oven, on a cookie sheet.  Turn it after 15 minutes, and cook until the skin is soft and wrinkled evenly.  DO NOT roast the eggplant how you roast a red pepper-- under the broiler until the skin is charred.  If you do this, your run the risk of an eggplant explosion in your oven... yeah, it happened to me.  No matter the method, be careful not to rupture your eggplant, because doing so releases all of its delicious juices.  In the event you do rupture it, do your best to collect as much juice as you can, and add it back to the dish later.

2.  After your eggplant has roasted, and has cooled down enough to handle, peal the skin off of it, roughly chop it, and put it in a food processor along with the tahini, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil and salt.  Process until smooth, and then taste, to ensure your salt/lemon level is correct. Stir in chopped parsley last, and drizzle with olive oil just before serving.

Hummus

Ingredients:

1 -15 oz can chickpeas (1.5 cups)
4 cloves of garlic (depending on how much you like)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons tahini
salt, to taste
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon chopped, fresh parsley.

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth. 

Green Olive Tapenade

Ingredients:

5 medium cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup pitted green olives (a jar marked 5.75 oz dry weight)
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1.  Saute the garlic in olive oil for a few minutes.  Allow it to cool slightly
2.  Rinse olives under water to remove some of the salt.
3.  Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor, and process on low (or even pulse) until the particles are quite small, but still have their own identity (ie.  do not over process, you do not want a paste, you want small particles). 

Reference:

Langton, B., Stuart, M.  2012.  The spoonriver cookbook.  University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.