Eggplant Boats with Garlic Tahini and Caramelized Onion
If you want to impress your friends at the next dinner party you can prepare a side dish that is affordable, healthy, and delicious.
All it takes is some fresh ingredients prepared well with the right garnishes. I love to serve this eggplant dish with oven-roasted turmeric chicken shawarma, hummus, and salad. Tahini is an amazing source of protein and fat, it is high in folic acid, great for bone health, balances hormones, and helps with weight loss. Tahini is an amazing food if you are eating according to OnePeak Medical’s Body Analysis Protocol, any low-carb type nutritional plan, OR if you are eating plant-based (just be sure to pair it with loads of veggies for it to become a complete protein).
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 large yellow onion
2-4 eggplants, look for a variety with thinner skin (or you can peel them after cooking)
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
¼ teaspoon cumin
Tahini sauce
¾ cup tahini paste
¼ cup water
1 lemon plus ¼ tsp zest
1 clove garlic
Toppings
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup of pumpkin seeds
¼ cup chopped parsley or cilantro
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Thinly slice your onion. Heat up a pan to low-medium heat. Add olive oil, and add the onion and, stir frequently until it becomes golden brown. Cooking them low and slow will create a more even caramelization.
- Slice the eggplants in half lengthwise. Score the flesh of each half with deep, diagonal crisscross cuts, making sure not to pierce the skin.
- Place halves on a parchment-lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, and massage in.
- Season with salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and cumin.
- Put in the oven and roast for 35-40 minutes (turning halfway) until the eggplants are completely soft, depending on the thickness of your eggplant you can peel the skin or not.
Tahini Sauce
- Add the tahini and stir with 2 tablespoons of water, lemon juice, and crushed garlic.
- As you mix, continue to add water 1 tablespoon at a time, as necessary. Watch as the tahini’s texture goes from sandy brown to creamy white.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
Final Garnish
Place eggplants on the plate, spoon over tahini sauce and sprinkle with the caramelized onion, cilantro or parsley, lemon zest, and pumpkin seeds. Finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Nutrition Facts
Carbohydrates 41.8 g
Fiber 12.2 g
Net Carbs 29.1 g
Fat 34 g
Protein 10.8 g
About the Author
Lia Klugman, Fitness and Nutrition Adviser in White City and Ashland, OR provides holistic nutrition expertise to support OnePeak Medical patients in meeting their health and wellness goals.
A second-generation foodie and health nut, Lia grew up eating nutritious foods. Her father is Israeli, so salad for breakfast with hummus and a hardboiled egg was frequent. Lia’s mother cured her sister’s asthma with nutrition alone and prepared a wide array of nutritious foods. Lia didn’t try candy until she was 6 years old! She also never believed in Santa Claus, but believed dried apple was bubblegum. When Lia got a little older, she realized she would only be allowed to eat sugar if she baked something with it herself. This loophole developed her love for baking, cooking, and her tendency toward blood-sugar imbalance.
Fast forward to 2017, Lia was working through her own health journey working at the front desk of an acupuncture clinic. She learned many different modalities such as Nutritional Response Testing, herbal medicine, meridians, and how energies flow in the body. She quickly realized how passionate she was about nutrition and health and decided to study at Bauman College of Culinary Arts. Lia completed her Nutrition Consultant Certification in 2019. After her degree, she started her own practice and has helped clients heal everything from their eczema to chronic digestive discomfort to managing their PCOS symptoms, as well as excelling in their workouts.
Lia’s strives to support her clients to build resilience and intuition through nutrition. After working with Lia, clients report feeling more in tune with their body so that they begin to crave the healthy foods their body needs to thrive. To Lia, success looks like being able to indulge during moments of celebration without overdoing it or feeling like you need a week to recover.
Lia believes nutrition is not just physical, but emotional as well and shares this wisdom in every aspect of her work. Many people are turned off by their bodies’ natural wisdom and instead rely on the next TV show or influencer to tell them how to eat. It’s much more difficult to create an enjoyable life if we can get stuck in a pattern of trendy restrictive diets or binge eating. They both are experiences of detachment from what our body actually needs. If we get educated, dig deeper, and enhance our intuition, we can get clarity on our own health. The more we listen to our body, the louder it speaks.
Upon working with Lia, patients report having more energy, confidence, and trust in themselves, so they feel better able to handle whatever comes their way. She does this by co-creating a plan with clients that is manageable, incorporating various healing modalities that include how to heal the mind, body, and spirit in conjunction.
One of Lia’s favorite sayings is from Ayurveda (Traditional Indian Medicine): “You are not what you eat but what you digest.” She believes this spans beyond just our health and food but includes information we intake, experiences we do, modalities, and medicines we take. Digestion is the act of assimilating external information. Practicing this is crucial to healing and growing.
Book an Appointment
Lia is currently seeing patients at our White City and Ashland clinics or virtually via telehealth appointment. Call today to book your appointment with Lia!