As far as I know, this is my own invention/adaptation. I started it because my daughter is allergic to eggs. And it’s been very useful for dairy-free or vegan friends.

The key special ingredient is a good baba ganoush. You can make it yourself if you’re a real cook, or buy it if you’re like me—but make sure it’s is egg and dairy free (many of the mass produced products have eggs.)

I don’t have exact measurements — you’ll have to adjust amounts for your own pleasure and tastes, as well as how thick you like it.

In a jar or tall’ish container:
- Fresh garlic cloves, crushed. The baba ganoush also has garlic
- top with a generous amount of olive oil (at least an inch)
Let soak while you do other prep, but you can do this an hour or more before you want to make the dressing
- top up with juice of fresh lemon (I use about a 1/4 - 1/2 lemon)
- a small amount of Dijon mustard (maybe 1/2 a teaspoon)
- a fairly large spoon of baba-ganoush, maybe 2 measured tablespoons? Depending on how thick and creamy you want the dressing vs how lemony — you’ll likely do some tasting and adding.

Quite generous amounts of salt and pepper.

I whip it up with a fork. It sort of emulsifies like a lemon vinegrette but not totally. Keep tasting and adding what you need to get the taste however lemony or salty or whatever as you like.

There is a simpler version— use vegannaise (vegan mayo) like you would in your regular recipe. However, we like this flavour better in my house — the roasted or smokey flavour of the babganoush somehow makes up for the missing cheese?

I also think that crushing your own fresh garlic and using juice from an actual lemon makes a big difference. As does the quality of the olive oil—I have a bottle of pricey olive oil we only use for salads where you can really taste the difference.

Enjoy!