Baked Pita Chips and Eggplant Dip

Baked Pita Chips and Eggplant Dip

I thought I would round out my recent love affair with Turkish cuisine by creating a recipe that is good served as an appetizer, side, or main dish. When I have more time on my hands, I love to make homemade whole wheat pita, which is surprisingly easy to make and sounds really impressive to others. This pita recipe even won an NYU cooking contest! However, this week was filled with German practice exams and lesson plan writing, so I needed something quick. I grabbed a bag of whole wheat pita from the store and with a few spices thrown in, you have tasty and super crunchy fresh pita chips. Because I felt a little guilty about this shortcut, I set out to make a dip that could accompany these wonderful crisps. The farmers market came through yet again by offering mounds of beautiful eggplants and peppers of every shape and color. Because it’s me, I ran for the gorgeous purple peppers and grabbed a few before they disappeared into everyone’s shopping bags.

All I need was a few cloves of garlic and a small onion to make a savory and thick eggplant dip.  The purple color sadly did not last through presentation of the final product, but the unique tastes of all the vegetable components shined through until the last bite. Enjoy!

Baked Whole Wheat Pita Chips

1 package of whole wheat pita or use the recipe above for fresh homemade pita in under an hour

3-4 tablespoons olive oil

2-3 tablespoons za’atar (Middle Eastern spice combination that is sold in most grocery stores)

1-2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

1/2-1 tablespoon kosher salt

Cooking spray or additional olive oil

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and cut pitas into triangles, like you would a pizza. If you are using thick pita, you might want to separate the pockets into two separate rounds to make crispier chips

2. Throw pita wedges into a bowl and lightly toss them with olive oil

3. Add za’atar, salt, cayenne, and any other spice you might want, such as garlic powder

4. Fan out wedges into one layer on a cookie sheet that is greased with olive oil or cooking spray

5. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown

6. Cool completely, they should be crispy once at room temperature, store in airtight container for up to a week

Eggplant and Roasted Pepper Dip

Note: You do not have to take the skins off of the eggplant and pepper, I chose to, but they are delicious with the skins on since they get pureed anyway

4 small eggplants or 1 large

2 peppers, any color but green, chopped into big pieces

1 medium or 2 small yellow onions peeled and chopped into big pieces

3-4 cloves of garlic, do NOT peel them

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 plain yogurt (optional)

Salt

Pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 420 degrees and place tin foil on the bottom rack of the oven

2. Use a fork to prick eggplants and place directly on to top rack of the oven and roast for 40 minutes or until skins are very dark and soft to touch

3. Take eggplants out of oven and let cool to room temperature

4. While eggplants are cooling, set oven to 400 and on a cookie sheet, place peppers, onions, and garlic cloves and drizzle with olive oil

5. Roast at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until vegetables are browned and look lightly roasted. If there are any burnt black bits, that’s okay, they just add flavor!

6. Let peppers and garlic cool a bit, during this time, cut eggplants in half and remove pulp from the skins, it should be relatively easy to do so

7. Unpeel the garlic cloves and then put them in a food processor with the eggplant, onions, and peppers, a little of the leftover olive oil and some salt and pepper to taste

8. Puree until smooth, or leave it a little chunkier if you want, it’s delicious either way. Taste and add additional salt and pepper if necessary

9. If you want, at this time, add some yogurt to make a creamier dip

10. Serve at room temperature or lightly chilled with pita chips or vegetables like carrots to dip. You can drizzle olive oil and za’atar on the eggplant dip right before serving

The dip keeps in the refrigerator for about a week.

Advertisement