Spiced Up Eggplant and Chickpea Roast with Tahini Sauce
Hi, it’s Sara, and I have a recipe to share that comes from a mash-up of different recipes that I have loved and adapted over the last few years since I left St. Louis. As always, I look at recipes for inspiration, but rarely actually follow them. I call myself a lazy chef, but that’s not accurate, because I will spend all day looking at recipes and in the kitchen, making things far more complicated than they need to be. But I can’t for the life of me follow a recipe from beginning to end. Also, I never remember to take photos, so this recipe doesn’t have a photo (yet, but I make this pretty often, so I hope to add the real deal soon). You can check out the blogs I cited below for pretty pictures!The eggplant recipe comes from Inspired Taste, which has a great, heady spice blend that I find irresistible. I add a can of chickpeas in the mix to roast alongside the eggplant to include a crispy protein-rich main course to serve with or on a green salad.
The tahini sauce is a meld of two recipes, one on downshiftology.com, the other on Cookie and Kate. You’ll find the ingredients the same in essentially the same proportions, but the method is different in that one includes the fresh garlic, while the other marinates the garlic in lemon juice and strains it out. If I’m putting my tahini sauce in a squeeze bottle to squirt a pretty drizzle over something (everything), I’ll add a couple extra cloves of garlic and strain it out so it doesn’t clog the spout of the squeeze bottle. Otherwise I include that garlic and spoon the tahini sauce on the plate and top it with the roasted deliciousness.
Roasted Eggplant and Chickpeas
Ingredients
1 medium-large globe eggplant
1 can chickpeas, drained
2 T. olive oil
1/2 t. sea salt
1/2 t. ground black pepper
1 ¼ t. ground fennel
1 ¼ t. ground cumin
1 ¼ t. ground coriander
1/4 t. ground cinnamon
1/8 t. ground cloves
Fresh cilantro for serving, or your favorite available herb (optional)
1/2 t. ground black pepper
1 ¼ t. ground fennel
1 ¼ t. ground cumin
1 ¼ t. ground coriander
1/4 t. ground cinnamon
1/8 t. ground cloves
Fresh cilantro for serving, or your favorite available herb (optional)
Method
Preheat oven to 425F.
Mix all spices together in a small bowl. Cut eggplant into 1-inch cubes and mix with drained chickpeas in a bowl. Toss with olive oil, adding more if needed to coat the eggplant (very lightly, but enough for the spice mix to stick). Sprinkle spice mix over, tossing to coat evenly. Spread out on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake 30 minutes, stirring halfway through. Eggplant should get nicely browned and all should get a bit crisped.
Tahini Sauce
Ingredients
½ c. tahini
¼ c. cold water, or more for a thinner consistency
¼ c. fresh lemon juice, (one sm. lemon)
2-4 garlic cloves, minced
½ teaspoon sea salt
pinch ground cumin
Method
If you want a super smooth sauce, use four cloves garlic and marinate in the lemon juice for at least 10 minutes before straining and pressing out the garlic. Otherwise, use two cloves garlic and whisk together with the tahini, lemon juice and half the water until smooth. Add the remaining water and whisk some more. Add more water to thin or add more lemon juice if you’d like it more tangy.
Serve up with a green salad, and feel free to mix it up with different roasted veggies. The spices leave you dreaming about the next time…