Turkish Aubergine Dip

A while ago I had dinner at my colleague E.'s house and got treated to a Turkish dinner. What a great surprise!! You see, my colleague E. is engaged to a A., who is from Turkey and therefor she cooks Turkish dishes on a regular basis. I really enjoyed all the different flavours I got to taste and decided I would try to recreate the dip that she made that night: she made it sound so easy!!

It was quite an easy recipe, you need some simple ingredients: most of which I always have at hand, so this weekend I picked up some Turkish bread at the market and made the Turkish Aubergine Dip to serve with it.

Turkish Aubergine Dip

1 aubergine

1 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped finely

4 tablespoons of turkish yoghurt (greek yoghurt can also be used)

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees Celsius (about 482 degrees Fahrenheit).

Rinse the aubergine and pierce the skin of the aubergine in several places. Put the aubergine on a lightly oiled bakingsheet and place it into the oven for 30 minutes or untill the skin is wrinkly, like in the picture above. Turn the aubergine after 15 minutes.

Take the aubergine out of the oven and let it cool. When cooled, slice the aubergine into halve lenghtwise. Scoop out the flesh and mash it with a fork.

Mix the mashed aubergineflesh with the garlic, yoghurt and add salt and pepper to taste. (You can also put the aubergineflesh into a food processor and process to a smooth puree, but I find that if you mash it by hand you have a more 'rustic' looking dip and less dished to wash)

Serve with some Turkish bread of Pita bread.