Roasted Eggplant Dip

When you're intolerant to all sorts of foods like I am, it can sometimes be hard to find snacks that are yummy and healthy.  This dip is both.  Very quick to whip up once you have roasted your eggplant and garlic!  Roasting the garlic cloves gives this dip a very mild garlic flavour but you could use raw garlic if you wanted - though if you do that, then I recommend cutting back to just 1 clove of garlic.

Ingredients:
1 eggplant
3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Sea salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1.  Preheat oven to 160 degrees and line a baking tray with baking paper.

2. Pierce the eggplant a few times and place on the baking tray, along with the 3 unpeeled garlic cloves.  Bake for 15 minutes, take out the garlic, and bake the eggplant a further 20 minutes or until soft.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

3. Peel the garlic and eggplant and add to food processor or Thermomix.  Process for a few seconds until chopped (3sec/sp5 in Thermomix).

4.  Add the remaining ingredients and process until almost smooth (1min/sp5 in Thermomix).  Adjust seasonings if necessary.  Drizzle with some extra olive oil and serve with crackers or veggie sticks.