Mutabbal (also called Mtabbal) is a Palestinian dish, made with roasted aubergines and tahini. There is a confusion between Mutabbal and Baba Ganoush. These two are very different despite both being made with roasted aubergines. Maybe this is where the confusion starts from. Mutabbal is made with tahini and I’ve also seen some recipe in which Greek yoghurt is added. On the other hand, Baba Ganoush, is made without tahini and it has some other veggies in it, like peppers or tomatoes. I’m going to make Baba Ganoush too, because I do like the sound of that one too.

I’ve made the dish with ready made roasted aubergines. I buy it from the International Shop. It’s sold in big jars and it’s very easy to use instead of having to roast the aubergines myself. It’s not complicated to roast aubergines, check the tips at the end of the post.

Ingredients for 2 servings of Mutabbal:

– 500g roasted aubergines
– 50g tahini
– 2 spoons of lemon juice
– 2 cloves of garlic
– salt, white pepper
– 2 spoons of Kalamata olive oil

I would suggest weight in all the ingredients the first time you are making it.
Put aubergines in a bowl, add the tahini, the lemon juice, the mashed garlic, the oil, and the spices and stir until all the ingredients are incorporated. Add more spices and lemon juice if you think is necessary. Now is done! It’s amazingly easy to make, isn’t it?

I served my Mutabbal with seeded folded flatbreads and tomatoes. It was delicious and I’m going to make it again. The Kalamata oil gave it a really lovely taste and, of course, I love tahini as well.

To roast the aubergines, you need to wash and prick the skins of the aubergines, put them in the oven at medium heat and leave them to bake for about 1 hour and a half to 2 hours. Flip them half way through. When they are scorched, take the skins off and leave the flesh in a colander for 30 minutes. After that you can use the roasted aubergines for this dish.