Refuge recipes: vegan mutabal
If you fancy taking part in Veganuary this year, we’ve persuaded our chefs to share a few vegan of our most popular vegan recipes. Mutabal is a smoky aubergine dip that’s similar to baba ganoush, the difference is generally baba ganoush includes tomatoes, pomegranate and mint (and is sometimes made without tahini). To make this recipe vegan, we’ve just missed out the yoghurt – don’t worry though, it’s just as delicious as the original!
Vegan mutabal recipe
Makes four to six portions
Ingredients
450g roasted aubergine pulp (roughly what you get from 1kg of raw aubergine)
1 clove garlic, crushed
40ml lemon juice
35g tahini
100ml extra virgin rapeseed oil
Table salt
Good quality sea salt (we like Maldon or Cornish)
Serve with
Toasted cumin seeds, freshly ground in a pestle and mortar (optional)
Handful of pomegranate seeds (optional)
Good quality olive or rapeseed oil
Freshly toasted flatbreads
Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C (gas mark 6).
2. In a large bowl, mix the aubergines with the oil and season with a little table salt. Pace on a baking tray and roast until the inside is soft throughout (check by the stem), then allow to cool in the skins.
3. Once cooled, remove all the flesh from the aubergines and set aside.
4. Add the aubergine, garlic, tahini and lemon juice to a food processor and blend till smooth. Slowly blend in the oil until fully incorporated and silky smooth. Stop the food processor one or twice to scrape the mixture off the sides and back into the bowl.
5. Season to taste with the sea salt.
6. Spoon onto a shallow bowl or plate (this helps when dipping your flatbreads) and drizzle some of the oil over. Lightly sprinkle some of the toasted cumin and finish with the pomegranate seeds.