Roasted Eggplant with Tahini and yogurt dressing

This is a very unique way of cooking eggplant, its simple, healthy and really yummy.

Ingredients

  • 4 medium size eggplants (I used italian)

  • 1/4 Cup peanut oil or olive oil

  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt

  • 1 teaspoon black pepper

  • 1 teaspoon cumin powder

  • 2 teaspoons sugar

  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

  • 1 teaspoon dried mint or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint

  • 1/4 cup cilantro leaves washed and dried

  • 2 Tablespoons toasted pine nuts or almonds

  • Tahini yogurt dressing: 1/2 cup sesame paste “Tahini”, 1/4 Cup plain yogurt, 1/4 Cup water,

    juice of 1 lemon, 1 clove of garlic crushed and salt to taste. Mix all ingredients together till

    smooth, you can add more water to get thin the dressing.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F or 180C. line a flat baking sheet with aluminum foil and place a
cooling rack inside the baking sheet.

  1. Wash the eggplants and dry throughly, cut each one in half lengthwise.

  2. With a sharp knife, score the flesh in a diamond shaped pattern like criss-cross, make sure
    you cut deep so that you have at least 4 or 5 repetitive diamonds on each half.

  3. Grab each half between both hands and stretch the sides so that the cuts expand and
    deepen.

  4. Drizzle the kosher salt all over the halves and make sure the salt gets inside the cuts
    followed by black pepper.

  5. Brush each half with peanut oil or olive oil.

  6. Place all the halves on the rack in the baking sheet and place in oven to roast for 45 minutes

  7. Out of the oven, sprinkle the eggplants with cumin powder, sugar and cayenne pepper and
    place back in oven for another 7-10 minutes.

  8. Insert a knife inside the flesh of the eggplant to make sure its done, the flesh has to be soft
    all the way through, if not place bak in oven for a few more minutes.

  9. Drizzle with the Tahini yogurt dressing and garnish with mint, cilantro and tasted nuts,
    enjoy!



Rola Jordan