Oh, Mondays. They still manage to sneak up on us after a fun-filled weekend {mine included a hot chocolate festival, a lovely dinner or two, and an avant garde production of Much Ado About Nothing}.
Ease into the week with this lovely meatless Monday meal – the roasted eggplant is perfectly soft and the tahini-lemon dressing recalls flavors of Mediterranean summers. What I wouldn’t give to be dipping my toes into the Med right now..!
Tips: A lot of you asked me about black garlic after the last post so, I thought I would elaborate briefly here. Despite its striking color, the garlic is fermented in a completely natural process, which takes about a month and lends it the unique sweet and vinegar-y flavor. More on the technique: here. The garlic is fairly soft, so mincing or mixing it into dressings is easy!
Roasted eggplant with tahini and meyer lemon dressing
You’ll need:
- 1 eggplant, trimmed and halved
- 1 T tahini
- juice of one meyer lemon
- 1/2 t meyer lemon zest
- 3 cloves black garlic, minced
- salt, pepper,
- olive oil
1. Preheat oven to 425F. With a sharp pairing knife, score the eggplant several times cross-wise. Lay eggplant halves on a large piece of aluminum foil, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Place right on the rack in the oven and roast for about an hour, rotating halfway through.
2. In the meantime, make the dressing. Whisk together tahini, lemon zest, and lemon juice, then slowly add about a tablespoon of olive oil – maybe a little bit more depending on the thickness of your tahini – until you get a nice emulsion. Whisk in the garlic, taste, and season to taste.
3. Serve eggplant warm, with a spoonful of dressing right on top.
Your eggplant looks delicious my friend, honestly who needs meat? 😉
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Thank you, Uru! On Mondays, I agree 😉 haha
Delicious! I have an eggplant in the frig that needs cooking. What luck! Just reading the ingredients and looking at the pictures I can taste the dressing. Yum!
I think you’d really enjoy the flavors, Karista! In fact, I’m finishing the last bits of it off right now – not bad, as far as late night snacks go haha 🙂
Sounds delicious with the Meyer lemon dressing!
Thank you!
The dressing must add such a lovely flavor to the eggplant.
I first read that as lively rather than lovely and it is both 🙂 Thanks, Karen!
Why did i never think of roasting eggplant like this, I roast everything else, what an excellent idea and now i am off to look into this garlic! You know how i love sticking stuff into jars! c
Enjoy, C! And if you can perfect an at-home method for the garlic, I will be the first to try it 🙂
I am thinking of using the woodstove, but how to keep it at that low heat for 40 days.. still thinking! But I have to thank you for the egg plant idea, i am never making it any other way again. I thought i might use pomegranate molasses in a dressing.. what do you think?
Oh, I think that would be lovely – still a bit of a tart, middle eastern touch to the dish!
This is a vegetarian or non-vegetarian delight! I love the addition of the meyer lemon dressing with the tahini! I’m definitely holding onto this one!
Thank you, Lisa! I hope you love it:)
I love everything in this post. I love how you’ve sliced the eggplants, the dressing, the flavours 🙂 Not an eggplant lover, but I do eat it, and I’m especially looking forward to trying this soon 🙂
Such an interesting ingredient. I only read some details on black garlic today in the good food section and the heightened amino acids and suphar content which makes them so beneficial for health. The eggplant loo so delicious with the chargrill and a nice way to enjoy those whole veg with that creamy dressing too.
I love black garlic! It’s a very particular taste that still echoes of garlic but is somehow much more addictive. I think it’s the sweet vinegary notes, which always appeal to me 🙂