An unctuous aubergine dip that’s a little reminiscent of guacamole. Lightly flavoured with garlic and smoked paprika, once started, it’s hard to stop dipping.
The Cranks Bible: a timeless collection of vegetarian recipes by Nadine Abensur is one of my treasured cookery books. I bought it when it was first published in 2001 and have taken inspiration from it ever since. Despite its frequent use as a bed time read, there are many recipes I’ve barely looked at. The one for aubergine purée with cumin pitot is one such, or in my more prosaic terminology, aubergine dip.
The Cranks Bible
The original edition of The Cranks Bible has sadly gone out of print. But to celebrate its 15th anniversary, Orion in association with Cranks, has just published a new paperback edition. The recipes are exactly the same as the original except for one important addition – ta da – my recipe for cashew nut butter brownies. Yes, that’s right, I’m up there with Nadine Abensur, mine is the very first recipe in the book.
How did it get there I hear you ask? After my amazing award of Best Food Blogger in the South West, I’m getting a bit more used to strutting my stuff. I won best recipe in a Cranks competition and this was the reward. Excitingly, I have three copies to give away to my readers. You’ll find details of how to enter at the bottom of the post.
The original book is a lovely large purple hardback, with beautiful photographs that make you want to dive right in. The new edition must be aimed at the more serious cook as there are no photographs. I like pictures in a book as it gives me an idea as to what I should be aiming at, but not having them in does make for a much lighter and more portable book. You could easily stow it away in your bag for a bit of food inspiration on the daily commute or long train journey. Or is that just me?
It’s decidedly cheaper too with an RRP of just £9.99. I approve of the retro cover and the featured vegetable must have been whispering aubergine dip to me.
Contents
The book has a new introduction from Nadine, celebrating the rise of the whole foods that Cranks had pioneered way back in the 1960s. She also urges caution: demonising specific ingredients and food groups might be premature and detrimental in the long term. I have to agree with her, look at how the received wisdom on fat has changed over the last couple of decades. And the jury’s still out as to whether olive oil or rapeseed is better.
Nadine Abensur is passionate about good vegetarian food made from wholesome ingredients. If some of them can be home grown, so much the better. Inspired by an eclectic mix of cuisines, her recipes are interesting, healthy and most importantly, mouthwatering. They’re very much written with the home cook in mind and a number of tips are peppered throughout.
I particularly like the way the book is organised; it has chapters on spring & summer vegetables and autumn & winter vegetables, but each of these are subdivided into recipes for specific items. My aubergine dip, for example, is in the Aubergine section; as well as having a number of recipes where the humble egg plant is the main ingredient, it cross-references other recipes in the book where aubergines are also included.
Further chapters are organised in a similar way: beans & pulses, pasta & some alternatives, rice & some other grains, dressings, oils & vinegars, fruit & nuts, bread, biscuits & baking and much to my delight, chocolate & cream. I’m not going to tell you which is my favourite recipe (of the ones I’ve made), because one day I will blog my adaptation of it.
But I’ve tried my hand at a fair few and there are even more that I’ve bookmarked. One such is chocolate and almond meringue, a heady affair of almond meringue layered with chocolate mousse and chantilly cream.
Slightly healthier offerings include: Japanese noodle salad with Thai overtones, a quick aromatic laksa and pasta pouches with pumpkin and mango chutney. I could go on, but with 200 recipes to choose from, you’ll have to take my word that there’s something for everyone and for every occasion.
Aubergine Dip
I’m by no means a fussy eater, but I’m a bit funny about aubergines. I think I ate a dodgy moussaka, at the tender age of eighteen, when I was still a meat eater and it rather put me off. But I can’t avoid them for ever it seems. One turned up in my veg box recently, so as I cannot abide waste, I was forced into doing something with it.
Time to turn to The Cranks Bible and see if I could find something to tempt me. The first recipe I saw was for an aubergine dip. Now I’m very familiar with baba ghanoush from my days in Egypt, but I tend to avoid it if I can. I adore tahini and hummus, but I’ll pass on the aubergines. However this recipe, despite its obvious Middle Eastern origins, did not include tahini. I thought I’d give it a go, with an odd tweak here and there – of course!
It’s not quite as easy as some dips to make, when you just chuck everything into a blender and blitz. But it isn’t difficult either. You just need to cook the aubergine, shallot and garlic first. You can either roast them in the oven or fry them on the stove top. I chose the latter method.
Once cooked, you finally get to throw them into a blender or food processor, along with most of the other ingredients. The olive oil, you drizzle in slowly as you would for mayonnaise. This emulsifies the aubergine dip so it hangs together in a wonderful silky fashion.
I served it with the suggested wholemeal pitta breads toasted with olive oil and cumin seeds. And do you know what? I really liked it. CT and I polished the whole lot off in a few short minutes. Could this aubergine dip be the perfect antidote to memories of a malevolent moussaka?
Other Aubergine Dip Recipes You Might Like
- Afgani burani bonjon via A Seasonal Veg Table
- Eggplant dip (mtabbal) via Little Sunny Kitchen
- Smoky tomato & aubergine relish via Food to Glow
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Aubergine Dip – The Recipe
Aubergine Dip (vegan friendly)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 large aubergine - cut into medium sized chunks
- 2 tbsp olive oil + 2 tbsp good quality extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
- 1 shallot - chopped
- 2 cloves garlic - chopped
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- ¼ tsp smoked paprika
- 2 tbsp coriander leaves - finely chopped
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and fry the aubergines for about 5 minutes over a moderate heat.
- Add the shallot and garlic and fry for a further 5 minutes or until the aubergines are golden and soft.
- Whiz in a blender or food processor along with the lemon juice and paprika until the mixture has turned into a chunky or smooth purée depending on preference.
- Slowly drizzle in the extra virgin oil whilst continuing to blend at a moderate speed - as if you were making mayonnaise.
- Spoon into a bowl and mix in the coriander.
Notes
Nutrition
The Crank Bible Giveaway (3 copies)
I won this book as part of a competition prize. There was no requirement to write a positive review and as always all opinions are my own. The post contains affiliate links. Buying through a link to a power blender will not cost you any more, but I will get a small commission. This helps to keep Tin and Thyme blithe and blogging.
my favourite vegetarian dish is a cheese omelet made from my own chickens eggs
One of my favourites would have to be sweet potato, spinach and chickpea curry – very tasty and quick to make!
Caprese pasta – pasta with mozzarella tomato sauce and basil!
Tofu with pasta in a tomato sauce with courgettes, red onions and sweetcorn topped with vegan cheese and herbs
I really like a vegetarian curry, its not only tasty but enables me to use up all the odds and ends of vegetables in the fridge
Cheese dishes x
I’m a GF *almost* vegan. I can’t bake without butter!
my favourite recipe, is nut roast. I put a grated apple through it to help bind it and give it moisture as it can dry out. I also add grated carrot and a little cumin.
I serve it with roasted kale and red onion and beetroot compote.
Thank you for this, I’ve lost my original Cranks book, I used to like making their Devon applecake, it’s lovely! Incidentally, when making that recipe (which I had to google thanks to losing the book) I now add a teaspoon of finely grated jaffa orange rind and substitute all flours for GF flour.
Glad you’re in the butter for baking camp, it’s a hard one to beat. I do use coconut oil if I’m making something vegan and I’m quite impressed with it. Your nut roast sounds delicious, I do like a good nut roast and your apple addition sounds like a good one. Good luck.
Gratinee of Eggs Basque – Wealth of Med veg baked with cheese and egg
Baked stuffed marrow is a favorite and it was the first vegetarian dish I cooked.
My mother used to do a mean stuffed marrow with beans and served with cheese sauce I seem to remember.
vegetable lasagne – pasta layered with riddled aubergine, courgette, lots of tomato and oodles of Mozzarella
It would have to be my veggie mousakka! I love it
vegetarian chili and brown rice with a side of avocado tempura
I used to love the restaurant ‘Cranks’ in the late ’80s. I managed to buy a copy of the Crank’s recipe shop in a Charity Shop a couple of years ago and have enjoyed making many of the recipes. Their wholemeal carrot cake is to die for!!! xxx
I meant late 70s!! (Sadly all the Crank’s Restaurants had closed by the late 80s!!!) xx
Not all of them Jenny. The one at Dartington is still going strong – it opened in the early 70s. I remember because I was one of the first people to go in it.
I remember going to Cranks in London in the late 80’s, what a revelation! Didn’t know vegetarian food could be so varied.
Yes, it was a lot harder then finding good vegetarian food when eating out.
I have an old Cranks paperbook that I picked up in a free bookshop – love the Crecy plate pie!
Oh what’s the Crecy plate pie Carol? Sounds intriguing.
Roasted Asparagus and Tomato Penne Salad with Goat Cheese or Grilled Portobello, Bell Pepper, and Goat Cheese Sandwiches
I love a good homemade veg and Quorn curry cooked in the slow cooker as it is so easy to do and tastes delicious!
I love my home made vegetarian Lasagne with mushrooms, spinach & Creme fraiche
My fave is my Quattro Formaggio Lasagna, filled with ricotta, smoked Gouda, mozzarella & parm. Definitely not diet food!
I just recently found your blog & am really enjoying it. I have spent time in Cornwall, including most of one winter a number of years ago, way back when the first Poldark series was on tv. I hope to be able to get back to visit my friend Whitemoor again.
Ooh that was a long time ago Jackie. Not sure winter is the best time to spend in Cornwall so I hope you’ve managed to get some good weather whilst you were here. This winter has been terrible, it’s done nothing but rain. Your lasagna sounds delicious – cheese, cheese and more cheese sounds good to me.
I like the sound of the roasted cauliflower with cheese
Sweet potato & red pepper soup (Sweet potato, onion, potato, red pepper, veg stock, water, salt and pepper – simmer & blitz!)
Butternut squash, chickpea and spinach curry
a veg stew i make with everything i can find shoved in it. magic ingredient is proper peanut butter
Ooh, peanut butter in stew, love that idea. I’m assuming you use smooth?
Tumeric & Cumin roasted cauliflower with a tomato and chickpea side is my favourite at the moment. But I’m going to try this dip tomorrow as I’ve been looking for something to do with an aubergine!
Let me know how you get on Ruth. Your roasted cauliflower sounds delicious too.
Changes ALL the time but recently paneer curry, I like it with okra and have also discovered adding a little brinjal pickle to it really ups its game
Ooh yes, pretty much anything with paneer in it gets the thumbs up from me Helen.
Love Vege Lasagne
My aunt is vegan and makes some amazing food, I love her shepherdess pie
Broccoli and cauliflower cheese mornay
stuffed peppers with blue cheese and mushroom filling
Mine is Avocado and Spinach Pasta 🙂 It makes the most amazing creamy sauce, and tastes so so good. Of course not forgetting it is also full of so many fab nutrients!
My favourite vegetarian dish is pasta in a tomato and basil sauce with mozzarella cheese and spinach
Veggie pasta bake
We call it Sri Lankan Veg Curry – basically it’s cauliflower and parsnip cooked in coconut with chilli and lime and then spinach stirred through at the end… delicious!
Oh yes, that does sound good Sarah – love a good curry.
Lentil Pie which we make with a lentil and vegetable filling and a sweet potato topping.
I enjoy a good root vegetable stew on a cold winter’s day with plenty of ginger and garlic to ward off any bugs.
I love Mushroom Risotto, i like to add chilli flakes and grated cheese to it
I’m quite boring, but have to pick vegetable lasagne or even Quorn lasagne with garlic bread. But anything Italian I can attempt to make vegetarian is good with me. Not sure the family enjoys it though as some are quite “astonishingly” bad lol. 🙂
Haha Tracy, it’s called trial and error 😉
I enjoy all flavours of risotto especially with red and green chilli, and mushrooms
Vegetable Moneybags (fill pastry parcels filled with seasonal vegetables and vegetarian cheese).
I love cauliflower cheese with maybe a hint of garlic or mustard
I quite like a vegetable lasagne 🙂 thank you for the competition, I could do with a cookbook to guide me! x
Stuffed crust Cheese and tomato pizza with loads of garlic and mushrooms
Deep fried, battered courgette
Butternut squash soup (Butternut squash, onion, carrot, potato, veg stock, water, salt and pepper) <3
I love a mushroom risotto with lots of different mushrooms
I like a mushroom and halloumi brioche roll on a Sunday morning when I have plenty of time to wait for the large flat mushroom to roast. The saltiness of the cheese goes fab with it.
That sounds like my sort of food – lovely idea.
I would love to cook more veggie foos, so the book would be perfect
5 bean burger with sweet potato chips x
mine has to be a vegetarian lasagne
I love Indian food. So maybe Spinach & Chickpea Curry or Vegetable Samosas
Oh Choc, you are ace! I am really pleased that your recipe is featured in this book. And you should definitely be strutting your stuff. I am having trouble thinking of my favourite veggie dish as there is lots to choose from but I am partial to a dhal. Comfort food at its spicy best. I must make one, maybe tomorrow.
Thanks so much Kath. I’m doing my best to strut my stuff, but it doesn’t come easy 😉 Dhal is probably what I would have said too – perfect comfort food.
Vegetable and chickpea fajitas
Roasted squash and aubergine
I like cauliflower and cheese sauce. As it is delicious, nutritious and filling.
I love hummus – supermarket cheapest to homemade, not met one I don’t like. Yummy with breadsticks and celery, and makes the best sandwich on wholemeal with grated carrot.
I agree Judith, hummus is a bit of a wonder 🙂
It may be dated but I love a good old nut roast – brazil nut and mushroom is my favourite variety.
Oh yes, I adore a good nut roast and brazil nut and mushrooms sounds mighty fine Heather. I made a lentil and brazil nut roast last year which was pretty good too 🙂
Adore Indian vegetarian food. I do a quick aubergine and potato dish with coriander, cumin, turmeric and mustard seeds. It’s thick and comforting- great scooped up with naan. Your dip sounds lovely.
Ooh now I’ve realised I can enjoy aubergine, I might try your dip Bev, it sounds good.
I love veggie lasagne.
Vegetarian lasagna! it has to be my all time favourite.
A tasty Macaroni Cheese made with Brocoli and Aubergine xx
It has been a long time since I last had aubergine dip. Gotta make some soon. Yours looks really tasty, Choclette.
Thanks Angie, I can’t believe I liked it as much as I did.
I love aubergines – one of my favourite vegetables! I can’t pick my favourite vegetarian dish but one of my favourites is just a simple pasta arrabiata.
Well yes pasta arrabiata is hard to beat Corina 🙂
Sometimes I prefer a vegetable lasange to a meat one – and I am a meat eater! They’re that good! x
Congrats on getting your recipe featured! My favourite vegetarian dish is macaroni cheese with garlic bread 😉
Thank you. Oh yes, I’d forgotten about macaroni cheese – wonderful stuff.
Once a year I make ‘baba ganoush’. I eat some of it, enjoy it and give away the rest, which is most, of it. Another once-in-a-year-recipe is also an aubergine dip. A Russian recipe with hard boiled eggs as one of the main ingredients.
No thanks to baba ganoush Henk, but the Russian recipe sounds interesting.
Nothing beats making a big pot of Vegetable soup to heat you up after a cold winters day.
Veggie lasagne made in the summer with lots of home grown vegetables
I couldn’t pin it down to one favourite, but a current craze is for chickpea and butternut squash curry.
Love that dip. The Cranks Bible is one of those books that I feel sure I had once upon a time but I can’t find at the moment – there are too many of those. Much as I love an aubergine dip, I must admit that I’m a bit funny about aubergines too due to some slightly odd dishes back in the distant past.
Is this because you have an attic full of books Phil, which are impossible to access? It is one of those books that somehow seem very familiar. Glad to hear it’s not just me whose a bit iffy about aubergines.
Homemade quorn lasagne with plenty of tomatoes in and loads of cheese on top.It’s everyones favourite in our house.
vege lasagne at the moment
Changes all the time, but now I’m thinking Homity Pie!
I adore Homity Pie and of course it’s a good old Cranks favourite, so very fitting.
I like spinach and ricotta cannelloni – the whole family love it!
A vegetarian moussaka – the recipe was torn out of a magazine years ago!
I will eat just about anything with eggplant. One of my favorites is eggplant mirza from a little Persian restaurant in my home town.
Well I know it’s quite a popular vegetable but this is one of the first dishes I’ve actually liked. Thanks for the tip Lydia, I’ll have a look at mirza and see what what I think.
I love experimenting with veggie dishes from around the world – my current favourite is a delicately spiced persian rice and lentil dish …mmmm…
As a vegetarian it’s hard to pick my favourite recipe…I’m quite faddy and make something often for a while and then move on! I think Mexican is my favourite at the moment and I make burritos with wraps, Mexican rice, refried beans, salsa, corn, avocado, soured cream and grated cheese! Yummy!
Stop Sue, you’re making me feel incredibly hungry. I love Mexican food too, but I’m also like you and do something a lot, then move on.
Chilli – its so versatile, on jacket potatoes, tortilla, rice, burrito..
Mushroom risotto!
Since my first taste of baba ghanoush I’ve been a sucker for anything aubergine!
Hmmmm, I seem to be in a minority of one here CC.
I wasn’t a fan of aubergine until last weekend when I went to the Waitrose Cookery School and realised I’d been preparing them all wrong – I’d always just charred the skin until it blistered, I didn’t realise you were supposed to blast the poor things until every smoke detector in the street goes off, by which time they are soft, sweet and smoky inside rather then bitter and slimy. I’m a convert!
Haha Jane, glad it’s not just me. Sounds like I needed to do that course too – a long time ago!
mushroom risotto made by the hubby if made by me not as good
I like to make a quick and easy feta pasta – add cooked pasta to cubed feta, cooked peas, chopped olives, lemon, oil, salt, pepper and fresh mint if you have it. It is delicious.
Cauliflower & broccoli cheese with a cheddar & stilton sauce and fried leeks on the side. mmmmmm
Vegan Shepherdess Pie made with a mix of lentils, beans, peppers, mushrooms, passata carrots, onions and any other veg that needs using up, usually some garlic or turmeric or other herbs/spices – topped with potato, sweet potato and vegan cheese mash. It’s never the same twice but my family love it.
Shakshuka – both tomato and green versions – are my favourite. So many ways to enjoy it!
Shakshuka is a favourite here too Kellie. Trouble is, my favourites change like the wind 😉
I do a vegetarian chilli with as many vegetables as I can find – great for using up odds and ends x
I love a mushroom risotto with lots of different mushrooms or pasta alla chinque pi
This is a recipe i use for my son when we have Spaghetti Bolognese, it is Pappardelle with Mushrooms.
I love making shakshuka. It’s basically made from tomatoes, herbs and spices, and then you crack some eggs on top while it’s still cooking in a skillet and it looks lovely. Definitely recommend it!
I like cauliflower pie – fill wholemeal pastry with cooked cauliflower, home made tomato sauce and lots of cheese.
I find it very hard as a vegetarian to pick a favourite dish as I have sooo many 🙂 but as I have to pick one I think it has to my Mums vegetable moussaka 🙂 it’s delicious 🙂
Vegetable Lasagne, I can’t tell you what the recipe is because it varies every time I make it depending on what I have in the fridge at the time that needs using up 🙂
I love my homemade nut loaf which I make with lentils, chestnut mushrooms and cheese!