Roasted Eggplant with Garlic Yogurt

Gather the ingredients.

Remove the stem and slice the eggplant on a bias to around 1/2" thick. Eggplant will shrink a lot as you cook it, so thick slices are good.

Dust the eggplant slices lightly in salt and set them aside. The salt will help the eggplant to shed some moisture as you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Peel and grate or crush the garlic to a paste.

Dump the yogurt into a small mixing bowl.

Stir in the crushed garlic.

Warm some olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. You don't need to add all of the olive oil at the beginning. The eggplant will soak up oil as it cooks. Add the olive oil in small amounts as needed to keep the pan coated.

When the oil begins to smoke, carefully add the eggplant slices. They will probably spatter, as the salt has pulled out some moisture. Searing eggplant takes some patience. It likes high heat and because it contains so much water, it can take awhile to brown.

As the slices are toasted, flip them over to toast the opposite side. Add a little olive oil as the oil dries up.

You probably won't be able to fit all of your eggplant in the pan at once. And, your pan may not be evenly heated. Rotate the slices through the hotter areas of your pan and as the slices are toasted, transfer them to a plate to make room for the next batch.

Stack up the fried eggplant slices and cut them in half to yield 2 stacks of half circles.

Lay the slices out on some paper towels to soak up some excess oil.

Dust the slices with the dried oregano and a little freshly ground pepper.

Spread the garlic yogurt out on a platter.

Stack the eggplant slices randomly in the yogurt to build a fun looking pile.

Sprinkle the pepitas over the top.