Aubergine Hummus

No, this isn't Baba Ganoush, the usual dish that one would expect as an eastern dip to accompany my Moroccan meal. I wanted to make something slightly different - so we have aubergine hummus. Or eggplant hummus (depending on where you're from).

A creamy delicious change from normal chickpea hummus - this mixes the chickpeas with roasted aubergine, with notes of garlic, lemon juice and a touch of cumin. Lovely with anything.

Ingredients:

1 aubergine, sliced into rings
3 cloves garlic, crushed
3 tbsp. olive oil
300g chick peas, rinsed
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. ground cumin


Set the oven to 190 C. Place the aubergine slices onto a baking sheet, sprinkle the garlic over the top and drizzle with one of the tablespoons of olive oil. Pop in the oven for about 20 minutes. Keep an eye on it - if the slices are too thin it will burn. You want the aubergine to be tender.

Remove the aubergine from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Then tip into a food processor along with the chick peas, lemon, cumin and remaining olive oil. Process until smooth and put into a nice serving dish. Dress with a drizzle more oil and some pickles on the side.

Note: I have decorated this with redcurrants as I harvested some today from the garden, but you can use anything you like. Indecently, the redcurrants were lovely with the hummus! Enjoy!