Roasted Eggplant & Garlic Hummus

Oh. My. This was delicious!!!!  Rod and I wanted a tapas-style meal after a long weekend--fun, totally fun, just a couple of long drives and
sitting on your butt for hours is actually exhausting.

Well, let me be accurate, I wanted to prepare tapas and Rod was happy with food.

In addition to these, I made "pigs in a blanket" but I'll post a recipe when I make the dough. Last night I just used some old phyllo dough that's been left unloved for many moons. I also made brie! Yes!!  And it ROCKED!!! It came from the book "The complete guide to vegan substitutions" and I have a link to the recipe they posted when the book was still a work in progress.  There are a lot of other good ones here, just scroll down to find the brie.

http://justthefood.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Complete%20Guide%20to%20Vegan%20Food%20Substitutions

The hummus is soooo tasty. We had a variety of options to dip: multigrain crackers by "Food Should Taste Good", 9-grain baguette slices from Publix, celery sticks and carrots.  Winner? The carrots!!!!  All of them were delicious, but there was something about the sweetness of the carrots that went so well with the dip.  The bread went best with the brie, in case you were wondering!

Next time, which will be soon, I will also be roasting the garlic :-)  This is so easy to put together! Courtesy of the best kitchen appliance, my food processor. All glory to the processor!

Roasted Eggplant and Garlic hummus
2svgs, 125 cal. each

CONTENTS

1 medium eggplant
3-5 garlic cloves (depends on how garlicky you want the dip)
1 TBS tahin
Juice from 1 lemon
1/4 tsp salt

FASCIST DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 350F, prepare a baking sheet with spray, oil, etc.
2. Slice eggplant into 1/4 inch rounds. Keep the skin on if you like. I like. It's where all the vitamins are, doncha-know
3. Roast eggplant rounds for 20 minutes, then flip and continue roasting another 10 or so, until they are browning. Meanwhile, peel the garlic. Chuck it in the processor, chop it up.
4. Remove eggplant and add it to the processor. Process til smooth.
5. Add tahini and salt. Process.
6. Add lemon juice and give it a good process til smooth.
7. Enjoy!!!!!

The raw garlic gave it a spicy kick, which I love, so next time I will put in a ton of garlic-- 2 raw cloves and about 5 roasted ones.  Yum.

PS, notice there's not a single chickpea involved? That was my way to get Rod to accept this dish. Say roasted eggplant dip and he's half enthused. Toss in the word hummus and he's salivating in anticipation!