The Best Middle Eastern Eggplant Recipe [Video]

This is a Middle Eastern Eggplant Recipe to always have close at hand. Middle eastern roasted eggplant is served with a stunning tahini yogurt sauce and pomegranate arils, and is perfect as a side dish or an impressive appetizer!

If you’ve been a reader for long enough, you know we have a great collection of Middle Eastern recipes on the blog thanks to our roots and places we’ve lived in. From tasty and easy tahini sauce and manakish zaatar to our favorite Lebanese rice with vermicelli, we have you covered. Today’s recipe is one of my all time favorites, this Middle Eastern eggplant dish is simple, and packed with so much flavor. 

What goes into Middle Eastern eggplant recipe

This is an innovative recipe with delicious Middle Eastern flavors. There are just a few ingredients that you need to make this eggplant dish:

• Eggplants: Make sure your eggplants are fresh and firm. If the eggplants have brown spots on them or are too soft in some areas, they’re not suitable for this recipe. 
• Garlic: The more the merrier. The combination of garlic, olive oil and salt will give the eggplants a bold flavor.
• Sumac: One of my favorite spices, sumac is a middle eastern spice with a tart flavor, made from sumac berries.

As for the yogurt tahini sauce, you need good quality tahini, plain yogurt, garlic, lemon juice, salt, sumac and olive oil. This is a simple recipe that you can serve at a party or a simple family gathering. 

Middle Eastern roasted eggplant recipe

This Middle Eastern roasted eggplant with tahini yogurt sauce is a year-round favorite! This is a dish that’s bursting with Middle Eastern flavors such as sumac, garlic and tahini. This is not an authentic Persian recipe but it indeed has the same flavor profile: subtle, earthy and not overly powerful. With pomegranate arils on top, this dish is perfect for yalda aka winter solstice. 

Looking for more Eggplant Recipes?

• Persian Eggplant Soup
• Stuffed Eggplant with Lamb and Walnuts
• Kashke Bademjan (Persian Eggplant Dip)
• Grilled Eggplant Sandwich
• Eggplant caponata
• Turkish stuffed eggplant
• Eggplant moussaka

How to make a Middle Eastern eggplant dish?

Start with choosing the right eggplant. The eggplants must be fresh and without brown seeds. Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise and cut diamonds into the flesh. Drizzle with olive oil, sumac, garlic and salt and bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until they’re completely cooked and the flesh is soft and nice. Please check out our tutorial on how to roast eggplant for more all the tips and tricks. Then top the cooked eggplants with homemade tahini yogurt sauce, some pomegranate arils and walnuts. You’ll have the perfect texture and flavor combination in a very simple dish.

It’s all about playing with flavors. Pomegranates and walnuts always go well together. So do lemon, garlic and tahini. As long as you know test and try to see how flavors and spices work together, you’re going to find yourself creating amazing dishes with so much flavor!

What to serve with Middle Eastern eggplant 

I love serving this Middle Eastern eggplant dish with yogurt tahini sauce. However, you can also top it with other sauces such as tzatziki or Lebanese tomato sauce. You can serve this dish as a simple lunch or dinner or even an appetizer. Or you can have it as a side dish with main dishes like chicken shawarma or beef shish kabob. 

An easy dish to serve at Yalda (winter solstice)

In a nutshell, Yalda Night (Shab-e Yalda) is an Iranian winter solstice celebration. It’s common to stay awake past midnight, read poems aloud, spend time with family and loved ones, and eat nuts, dried fruit, pomegranates and watermelon. In my family, we always have fish for Yalda night dinner. In north western part of Iran (Tabriz and the surrounding cities), if a couple if newly married, families take decorated fruit and nuts and some gifts to the bride.

Tips, tricks and FAQs for this Middle Eastern Eggplant Recipe:

Q: Can I use any type of eggplant?

A: As a matter of fact, yes! You can use most types of eggplants for this recipe including Japanese eggplants, Chinese eggplants, graffiti eggplants, Italian eggplants or the regular globe eggplants you can find in any grocery store. for this recipe I used Chinese eggplants as they’re the closest to what I used to use back in Iran, but I’ve made the same recipe using globe eggplants and the only change I had to make was to roast it for about 10 to 15 minutes longer.

Q: What can I use instead of yogurt to make the tahini sauce?

A: You can use sour cream, or any non dairy yogurt as long as it’s not flavored and is plain. This middle eastern eggplant recipe is a very forgiving one and you can modify it to your preference.

Q: Is this Middle Eastern dish served warm or cold?

A: Both! You can make the tahini yogurt sauce a couple of days in advance and serve it on hot eggplants right out of the oven for a hot appetizer/side dish. Or you can make everything before hand and top the eggplants with the sauce right before serving as a cold middle eastern eggplant salad. I personally prefer it served warm.

Q: I made too much tahini yogurt sauce, what should I do?

A: A lot of things! First of all, don’t throw it out. This sauce stays good for almost a week in the refrigerator and here are a couple of things you can do with it:

• Salad dressing: Add a couple tablespoons of water to the sauce and mix so it reaches the consistency of salad dressing. Use it on any type of salad.
• Sandwiches: Use this tahini yogurt sauce as a spread instead of mayonnaise on different sandwiches. My favorites are grilled veggies and grilled chicken sandwich.
• Dip: Grab a bag of pita chips and put the extra tahini yogurt sauce in a bowl. Place the bowl in the middle of the plate and place the pita chips around it. There. You now have a tahini dip for your party, too!

5 from 7 votes

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Middle Eastern Eggplant Recipe

This is a Middle Eastern Eggplant Recipe to always have close at hand. It's served with a stunning tahini yogurt sauce and pomegranate arils, perfect as a side dish or an impressive appetizer!

Course Appetizer, Side Dish

Cuisine Persian

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 6 servings

Calories 302 kcal

Author Shadi HasanzadeNemati

Ingredients

• 4 Chinese Eggplants
• 4 tbsp Olive Oil
• 4 cloves Garlic Minced
• 1 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp Sumac

Tahini Yogurt Sauce:

• 1/4 cup Tahini
• 1/4 cup Plain Greek Yogurt
• 2 cloves Garlic Minced
• 2 tbsp Lemon Juice
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Sumac
• 1 tbsp Olive Oil

Topping:

• 1/2 cup Pomegranate Arils
• 1/4 cup Walnuts Chopped
• 1/4 cup Parsley Chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

2. Cut the eggplant into halves lengthwise and place them on the baking sheet. Using a knife, cut diamonds into the eggplants, make sure you're not piercing the skin. 

3. Drizzle the eggplants with olive oil and rub the minced garlic on them. Sprinkle salt and sumac on the eggplants. 

4. Roast in the oven for 25-30 minutes until the flesh is soft and cooked completely. 

   Meanwhile, make the tahini yogurt sauce:
   

Tahini Yogurt Sauce:

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Taste and add more salt if needed. 

2. Once the eggplants are cooked, top them with tahini yogurt sauce, pomegranate arils, walnuts and parsley. 

Recipe Video

Recipe Notes

If planning to serve this middle eastern eggplant dish as a cold eggplant salad, then top the cold cooked eggplants with tahini yogurt sauce and toppings right before serving.