Courgette babaganoush

Simple, vegan, and mostly made from things you could have sitting in your pantry these meze dishes are the perfect back pocket crowd-pleaser for any occasion. 

This babaganoush is part of a trio of recipes that was inspired by our team “golden hour” aperitivos that we started doing once a week in celebration of long summer days. Fern Speakman on our team brought in these recipes, and they were such a hit. Simple, vegan, and mostly made from things you could have sitting in your pantry—it inspired a trio of levantine flavours for a meze that could be as useful in the depths of “the hunger gap” when fresh ingredients are lacking, as well as in the height of summer’s vibrant bounty when you just want to mix up something that doesn’t require heat!

Here's the method:

• Chop up the courgettes in rough diagonal pieces, 4-5cm wide. Cover in salt and EVOO and roasted in an air fryer until charred. Alternatively char on a BBQ or flame for extra smokiness.
• In the meantime chop up your herbs and mix in with the spices with tahini, oil, lemon and salt to taste.
• After 15 minutes in the air fryer or until suitably soft and browned take the courgettes out and set aside.
• Finely chop up the courgette on a chopping board until mashed to a chunky texture.
• Mix all together with spices, olive oil, lemon and tahini. Add more spices for extra warmth and citrus notes.
• Garnish with extra virgin olive oil, more sumac, pomegranate seeds and mint.