A Year in the Kitchen with Nigel Slater: October’s Roast Eggplant with Tahini

Alright, I’ll admit right off the bat that this recipe was a bit of a cop-out for me.  Normally when I cook from In the Kitchen I try to make something that I may not think about making myself.  This is not one of those things.   I use tahini yogurt dressing like other people use ketchup.

But having just gotten back from vacation and still easing my way back into cooking, this was a perfect recipe to try.   At first, a ham and bean dish from the book caught my eye because it looked so comforting.  Now, I am NOT a ham person.  I mean, I will eat it if it’s there, but never on my own volition. And like I said, I like to make things I normally wouldn’t make, which is why that dish stuck out.  But where does a person get not-a-lot of ham? I certainly wasn’t going to buy a whole ham and though I’m sure they sell large pieces somewhere, I didn’t know where. And I was too lazy to find out.  So that recipe will have to wait for another time.

As for the eggplant, it’s no surprise I liked the eggplant this way since I like tahini-yogurt sauce. The thyme was a nice addition to the dressing, since I don’t normally use it.  One issue I had with the eggplant was the peel. Whenever I make eggplant, I always peel about half of it (basically in a striped pattern) and I wish I would have done that here because there was a bit too much…chew? for me.