Ingredients:
1-2 medium eggplant
2 red bell peppers, seeded
1 red onion, peeled and sliced
2-4 garlic cloves, smeared with 1/2 -1 teaspoon oil and enclosed in foil
4 tomatoes, cut in 4 wedges each
olive oil spray
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Lemon juice or vinegar, optional but delicious, in my opinion
Directions:
Keep turning the eggplant over the gas burner until it is blackened on all sides. When blackened all over, wrap eggplant in foil so heat will penetrate, and when cool enough, cut open and scrape insides into your food processor.
Preheat the oven to 400 F, 200C
Cut and toss other vegetables, except garlic, which should be kept in foil, in a large bowl with the salt and pepper, and spray with olive oil–or add 1-2 teaspoons if you have no spray. Spread them on a baking sheet. Roast until the vegetables are lightly browned and soft, tossing once during cooking.
Cool slightly.
Place the vegetables, including the scraped eggplant, in a food processor fitted with a steel blade, and pulse 3 or 4 times to blend. You don’t want a much, but little chunks of pepper and tomato, to give the dip color and an appealing texture. After transferring to serving bowl or container, you can add in by hand (not machine) a little lemon juice or vinegar of your choice at this point for added flavor.
p.s. I have seen that some people making similar dishes use tomato paste in place of the tomatoes–I guess you could try each–tell me what you prefer. We definitely prefer the fresh tomatoes, but to each his own……
p.p.s. I was talking recipes (among many other things) with my eldest daughter last week, and she said her family’s current favorite eggplant recipe is………..well, it turned out to be exactly like ours except she slices the eggplant, and salts the slices, waits 20 minutes, and pats the slices dry, then cubes or slices the eggplant into strips and roasts along woth all the other vegetables–so if you find this easier to do than roasting the eggplant separately, by all means try it that way.