Assalamo alykum & welcome to the first Chapter of Ramadan – An Event to Share. Today our guest is beautiful blogger Madelon , who blogs at WayMadi.nl. Her food is reflection of her different roots. A perfect word would be a multi culture foodie. Today she is sharing with us Sudanese Baba Ganoush.

Assalamu ‘alaykoum all, I’m delighted to write this article about my Ramadan experiences. As I am an converted, or as I prefer to say, returned muslimah this will be my 10th Ramadan in shaa’ Allah.

My family is a very mixed composition, so our Ramadan tables are not so conventional as I often see in my social media timelines. My parents gave me roots from Indonesia, Portugal and the Netherlands Antiles. My husband is also from mixed origin.

We prefer our meals to be nourishing and balanced to provide sufficient nutrition for the next day of fasting and to supplement the ones lost in de past day. We live in the Netherlands where the fasting days are very long alhamdulillah. Due to chronically illness I am not allowed to fast those long days so the past years I’m taking the major role of making iftar meals for my husband and possible visitors. I also prep a lot each year so my kitchen time is not more then average which leaves me time for ramadan activities with our toddler.

The first years after my return to islam where a whole new world for me. Ramadan was something I only knew from the little not substantiated facts we got taught at school. The first years when fasting with my husband where like reading a new book.

With my husband from Sudanese and Egyptian origin we eat a lot of arab foods. Sudanese Baba Ganoush or salatat aswad is one of my favorite side dishes.

What do you need

• 2 small or thin eggplants
• 2 cloves of smashed garlic
• 2 tablespoons tahina
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 green chili
• juice of a half lime (or to taste)
• seasalt to taste
• a small hand of chopped cilantro

How to prepare

Roast your eggplants. I use a flame distributor and aluminum foil covering my stove. Roasting eggplants can give a little mess. Turn the eggplants every few minutes while roasting at a moderate fire. Adjust your fire as needed. Sometimes the outside of the eggplants catches fire, make sure your fire is not too high. When the eggplants are really soft by touch they are done. It is normal for the outer sides to stay firm, they get little heat from the flame. It normally takes my eggplants about 15 minutes to get soft and well-done.While my eggplants are roasting I chop the green chili and cilantro and smash my garlic.

Remove the well-done eggplants from your stove and lay them in a bowl with cold water or ice water. Let them chill for a few minutes, then you can peel the roasted skin off easily.

This is how roasted eggplants look after peeling. I cut the outer sides and chop the eggplant in small pieces.

Now you add tahina, the smashed garlic, vinegar, chopped cilantro, chopped green chili and lime juice (to taste). Reduce the garlic when you’re not a real garlic fan. Stirr well and season with seasalt.

To know  more about Madelon, connect with her on Blog, Facebook, Instagram