Eggplant tastes awful raw. I wonder what provoked the first brave soul to try cooking it? Hunger, I expect. That hunger turns out to be fortunate for us as roasted eggplant is just about as delicious a thing as can be eaten. Today we’re going to serve it with an easy tahini sauce for a flavorsome appetizer.
About tahini
Tahini is a paste made from sesame seeds, commonly used in the Mediterranean and Middle East. Like raw eggplant, plain tahini is kind of bland, but add a little garlic and lemon juice to it, and it becomes a tasty sauce for meat, vegetables and noodles. You’ll find it in cans and jars. When you get your purchase home, make sure to stir the oil into the sesame paste, like you would for separated peanut butter.
Tahihi is commonly added to hummus where it lends a nutty flavor to the mashed chickpeas. It’s also used to make baba ganoush, a dip made from roasted eggplant, tomatoes and onions.
Ingredients
For the eggplant:
- 2 small eggplant sliced into 1/2" rounds
- olive oil to coat
- smoky paprika
- salt and pepper
- chopped cilantro for garnish
For the tahini sauce
- 2 tablespoons tahini paste
- 2 tablespoons water you can add more to adjust consistency
- 1 - 2 cloves garlic minced or pressed
- 1/2 teaspoon smoky paprika
- juice from half a lemon
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C.
- Put the eggplant slices in a large mixing bowl.
- Toss with the olive oil, smoky paprika, salt and pepper.
- Use your fingers to rub the seasoning into every slice.
- Arrange on a baking sheet and bake until the eggplant is very soft, stirring occasionally. It will take about 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile mix the ingredients for the tahini sauce, adding additional water or lemon juice as needed to make a nice sauce.
- Place the roasted eggplant slices on a platter and drizzle with the tahini sauce. Garnish with the cilantro.
- Serve with lemon wedges and additional sauce.
The leftovers are awesome on a sandwich with more tahini and cilantro.
What a great Appetizer, love this combination! Thanks so much for sharing your awesome recipe with Full Plate Thursday. Hope you are having a great week and come back soon!
Miz Helen
I don’t eat eggplant raw either, but I do love it in lasagna and it sounds delicious made this way, too!! 🙂 Thank you for sharing it with us at ShowLicious Craft and Recipe Party! 🙂 I pinned it to the party board!!
Thank you for pinning and stopping by 🙂
Thank you so much for linking up at Tasty Tuesday! Your recipe has been pinned to the Tasty Tuesday Pinterest board! Please join us again next week!
Wow, so glad I came across this post because I have been looking at adding more vegetarian style dishes to my meals and eggplant is one of my favorites! Definitely pinning this.
Thanks so much for pinning and taking the time to comment! Have a great weekend 🙂
Just wanted you to know that your recipe is being featured on Foodie Friday today.
Thank you Diane! I’m making my way over there 🙂
Although I love eggplant, I never ever thought about roasted eggplant!This is such a great idea! And it looks so tasty 😡
This is recipe would be perfect for so many things like an appetizer, a main dish, or even lunch! Thank you so much for linking up to the Be.You.Tiful Link Party! I can’t wait to see more of your amazing recipes and posts!
This is a new combination for me! Thanks for linking up with us and we hope to see you next week! Sandra from Scrumptilicious4You with the Four Seasons Blog Hop.
Pinning this… love both eggplant and tahini… great combo.
We love roasted eggplants and I can imagine how good it will taste with tahini. Delicious !
I found your post on Get Him Fed & I’d love it if you would share your recipe on this week’s The Yuck Stops Here link party that ends Sunday evening at 8pm ET, we can always use great “flexitarian” recipes (me especially, with my party carnivore party pescetarian family)! You can find us at http://mommasangelbaby.com/the-yuck-stops-here-6/. Hope to see you there! HUGS
Thanks, Cheryl. I’ve linked up this week, so I’ll see you next time 🙂
I am also one of those people who wouldn’t touch eggplant growing up. It took my young son to get me to like it. He’s almost a teenager now and insists we plant eggplant each year. My favorite way to eat it is roasted. When we start harvesting, I will be making this! Pinned it for then.
Stopping by from Foodie Friday.
There are a lot of eggplant recipes on here, but I think roasting is my favorite way to cook many vegetables. Thanks for pinning 🙂
Yes, I do want to taste this! Great flavour combinations! I like the addition of cilantro too!
Now that you bring up the subject, I don’t believe I’ve ever had raw eggplant. So you know I’ll be trying a small bite just to see what I’m missing (not!). It’s lovely stuff when cooked, though. This looks superb — thanks.
This looks amazing! I am going to try it! I wish my kids liked eggplant though…it’s the one veggie none of them like. 🙁 I’ll make it for my husband and I.
I couldn’t stand eggplant when I was little, either. They might like the tahini as a veggie dip, though. Hope you give it a try 🙂
They like tahini. They love hummus. My husband is half Lebanese so we eat a lot of middle Eastern foods. 🙂
This looks delicious! I tried to make eggplant parmesan once and failed miserably! The eggplant was watery and squishy and the whole thing tasted like a rubber ball! Your recipe looks a bit easier and may be something I could actually accomplish! 🙂
Rick makes a good eggplant parm. I’ll have to write it up. It’s different than others I’ve tried. In the meantime, I hope you give this one a try. You can tell by the eggplant recipes on the blog that we really love it 🙂
This looks the kind of food I would wolf down – it looks delicious!