Eggplant Dip with Toasted Walnuts, Lemon, Tahini & Yogurt

5 from 3 votes

Luscious eggplant dip is rich and flavourful with toasted walnuts, tahini, lemon, and coconut milk yogurt. Naturally vegan and delicious! The inspiration point for this dip and the eggplant preparation is baba ganoush.

Image shows a board with a bowl of smooth eggplant dip, chopped vegetables, pita chips and olives.
An up close shot of a smooth eggplant dip with chopped walnuts and olive oil on top.
Image shows a kitchen scene with vegetables, herbs, and pita on the counter.
An up close, overhead shot of homemade pita chips.
An overhead shot of eggplant dip ingredients: non-dairy yogurt, parsley, lemon, walnuts,  cumin, tahini and garlic.


Maybe you’re like me and you have a dedicated eggplant and tomato zone carved out in your kitchen right now. It’s summer’s last stand, so I don’t mind eating these things every day, but variation is important. Our eggplant crops are bountiful this year, and because of that you all get
yet another recipe for this wonderful nightshade. I know that eggplant isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but! Pretty much everyone loves a dip!

The recipe inspiration here started during my Winter trip to Portland (heading there again in October and I can’t wait). My friend and I had this amazing, slightly tangy and nutty eggplant dip with steaming hot, fresh-from-the-oven pita. We tried to get boomerang videos of the steam escaping the freshly ripped pita a couple times. This didn’t work out for us (lol), but our enjoyment of the dip was still successful. It had a tanginess, detectable toasty cumin and walnuts, and some other key players like garlic and lemon.

It seemed like the natural starting point of the dish was a traditional baba ganoush (of which there are many variations), with all of those typical flavour notes intact, plus some interesting extras. I loved this deep dive on baba ganoush from Cooks Without Borders. It’s possible that a precursor to the famous dip utilized ground walnuts instead of tahini. Relevant to today’s post!

Just from a rough flavour memory, this luscious eggplant dip was really easy to fix up in my own kitchen. We served the first trial run to friends with a casual Labour Day weekend spread of grilled pizza, kale salad, and a suspiciously hot batch of blistered shishito peppers. Proving my point that everyone loves a dip, we snacked on this one well into the night. It has a lush texture that feels almost whipped in a way. Fatty, creamy, toasty, tangy, and bright all at the same time.

So yeah! Make a nice platter with a swoop of olive oil on top of the plated dip, tuck a smear of it into a sandwich, use it as the base of a grain bowl, or just dip vegetables and crackers into it throughout the week. One of my favourite tips for people that are new to the plant-based way of life is to always have some sort of delicious dip or spread around. You can combine that with a whole bunch of things to make a meal in a pinch. Even if you’re kinda “meh” on vegetables, dip can form a crucial supporting role to your upped consumption. My Roasted Carrot & Harissa Chickpea Dip and Velvety Roasted Garlic and Butternut Sesame Dip are also excellent choices

That’s it for this week! I’m heading to Montreal with Mark and our friends this weekend. It’s supposed to be unseasonably hot there and at home, so I’m looking forward to EVEN MORE eggplant on my counter when we get back :)

Image shows roasted eggplant halves being scooped out by a spoon.
Up close shot of eggplant dip ingredients in a food processor bowl.
Image shows a board with a bowl of smooth eggplant dip, chopped vegetables, pita chips and olives.
A 3/4 angle shot of a creamy eggplant dip in a white bowl, topped with chopped walnuts, parsley, and olive oil.
Image shows a board with a bowl of smooth eggplant dip, chopped vegetables, pita chips and olives.

Luscious Eggplant Dip with Walnuts, Lemon, Tahini & Yogurt

This eggplant dip is rich and flavourful with toasted walnuts, tahini, lemon, and coconut milk yogurt. Naturally vegan and delicious! The inspiration point for this dip and the eggplant preparation is baba ganoush.
5 from 3 votes
LUSCIOUS EGGPLANT DIP W/ TOASTED WALNUTS, TAHINI, LEMON & YOGURT - The First Mess
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 45 mins
Total Time: 55 mins
Servings 1.5 Cups

Ingredients

Dip Ingredients

  • 1 medium-large eggplant
  • ¼ cup walnut halves, toasted
  • ¼ cup tahini
  • cup thick non-dairy yogurt of choice (I used Anita’s coconut yogurt)
  • 1-2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • ¾ teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
  • ½ teaspoon ground Aleppo pepper
  • sea salt & ground black pepper, to taste

To Garnish

  • finely grated lemon zest
  • extra Aleppo pepper
  • extra chopped walnuts
  • chopped parsley
  • olive oil

Notes

  • I use Anita’s coconut milk-based yogurt (plain, unsweetened). It’s my plant-based yogurt of choice, but feel free to use whichever brand you like.
  • For my omnivores that may be making this with dairy-based yogurt: start with only 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and see how you like it. Dairy yogurt tends to be tangier, and you can always add more lemon later.
  • This dip is naturally oil-free if you omit the little swoop of olive oil as a garnish.
  • This dip is best at room temperature. It keeps in the fridge in a sealed container for up to 5 days.
  • To make this nut-free, I would replace the walnuts with the same amount of toasted sunflower or pumpkin seeds.

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment.
  • Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise and place both halves face down on the baking sheet. Bake eggplant until quite soft and wrinkly on the exterior, about 45 minutes. Remove eggplant and let cool slightly.
  • In a food processor, pulse the walnuts until they are finely ground. To the food processor, add the tahini, yogurt, lemon juice, cumin, garlic, chili, salt, and pepper. Scoop the soft flesh out of the cooled eggplant and transfer it to the food processor as well.
  • Run the food processor motor until you have a smooth and luscious dip, scraping the sides down if necessary. Adjust the dip for seasoning if necessary.
  • Serve the dip at room temperature with cut vegetables, pita chips, crackers, olives etc!
12/09/2018 (Last Updated: 12/09/2018)
Posted in: appetizer, autumn, creamy, earthy, gluten free, grain-free, holidays, oil free, refined sugar-free, roasted, salty, smoky, snack, sour, summer, tahini, vegan
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