With our eggplant cooked and packed with intense, smoky flavor, we’re now in the home stretch. Baba ganoush is a simple dip, and there are really only four more essential flavoring elements: garlic, tahini, lemon juice, and olive oil. How we add them is what’s important.

The tahini and olive oil, on the other hand, are fat-based additives. What does this mean for our dip? Well, as we all know, fat and water don’t play together very nicely. Dump your tahini and olive oil directly into the eggplant and stir it in, and your dip ends up with a greasy aftertaste. Some recipes overcome this effect with the use of power tools: A food processor will quite easily get that oil to emulsify with the liquid, resulting in a smooth, hummus-like texture.

But I like my baba ganoush to have some more textural interest to it, with tender chunks and strips of eggplant bound together in a creamy dip. How do you get that?