Improv Cooking Challenge: Garlic-Rosemary Baba Ghanoush with Gluten-Free Toasts

Welcome to August's Improv Cooking Challenge which was most recently run by Lesa of Edesia's Notebook but is now being headed up by Nichole of Cookaholic Wife. The idea: we are assigned two ingredients and are challenged to create a recipe with those two things.

This month's ingredients are two of my favorites: Garlic and Rosemary.

And here's the line-up for the rest of the year. Stay tuned...

September 15: Sausage and Mustard
October 20: Carrots and Curry
November 17: Nuts and Caramel
December 15: Cinnamon and Honey

So, garlic and rosemary? I decided to make a variation of one of our favorites. I've made many an eggplant dip - from one with honey to Greek Melitzanosalata. But, oddly, I've never posted a recipe for Baba Ghanoush. So, here we go...I added roasted garlic and fresh rosemary to this version. Yum!

Ingredients

2 medium organic eggplants (about 3 pounds total)
2 to 3 T olive oil
1/3 C organic tahini
4 to 5 cloves garlic, peeled
juice from 1 organic lemon, approximately 1/4 C
freshly ground salt
freshly ground pepper
1 T fresh rosemary, chopped + more for garnish
sliced baguette, toasted, for serving (I used a rosemary gluten-free bread!)

Procedure

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Rub the outside of the eggplants with olive oil and place them in a roasting pan with the garlic cloves. Roast the garlic until it is just softened, approximately 10 minutes. Roast the eggplant until the skin has charred and the interior is tender, approximately 50 more minutes. Let cool.

Peel eggplant and mash to a coarse paste with the roasted garlic, tahini, lemon juice, and olive oil as needed.