Wa Chi Minh Vang spent nine years in jail in Vietnam, where he ran afoul of government operatives for preaching Christianity within the country’s tight-knit Hmong community. His father, he said, died in jail, but Wa Chi Minh Vang never stopped advocating for greater religious freedom through his “Hmong United for Justice” YouTube channel, which he ran for years from Minnesota in an attempt to rally fellow refugees to the cause.

After seven years in a refugee camp in Thailand, his sister Thi Dua Vang, her husband and five other members of their family were finally able to join him in St. Paul in December 2023, when eight Hmong-Vietnamese families arrived together in the Twin Cities. The area’s Hmong-Vietnamese Christian community had suddenly nearly doubled in size.

Thi Dua Vang kisses her one-year-old granddaughter, Pang Chia, as she and her husband, A Pao Giang, speak with journalists at an undisclosed location on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

“We’re very, very small,” said Wa Chi Minh Vang, sitting with his sister, her husband and their granddaughter, who remain in hiding together in Minnesota following Thi Dua Vang’s two-week detention last month by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. “We’re just 20 families.”

Wa Chi Minh Vang talks about his sister, Thi Dua Vang, with journalists at an undisclosed location on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Thi Dua Vang’s life changed on the morning of Jan. 8, and not for the better. At 7:40 a.m., federal agents knocked on the door of her St. Paul rental home. Thi Dua Vang, a grocery worker, had put in late hours the night before and was still in bed, but her 11-year-old son opened the door.

“Do you know this guy?” they asked him, showing him a name. “Oh, that’s my mom!” her son replied.

“Where’s your mom?” they pressed.

“My mom’s still sleeping,” he said.

Within minutes, the federal agents had roused Thi Dua Vang from bed. Two years after relocating to Minnesota, praying for a better life, the 49-year-old’s next ordeal began. She and her husband are in the U.S. legally and in the process of acquiring green cards.

In the month since, her experience has underscored the scope of both Operation Metro Surge and Operation PARRIS, two federal efforts that claim to focus on detaining “the worst of the worst” while re-interviewing lawful refugees whose permanent residency applications are still in the pipeline. Critics, from civil rights advocates to federal judges, have pointed to detentions like Vang’s as they question why the federal government’s tactics have aggressively detained unwitting, everyday workers who have no criminal history and face no criminal charges.

In a written statement, a media office for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said of Thi Dua Vang: “This individual was in the United States without legal status and was arrested by ICE. They have been released on bond and will have their day in court.”

A two-week ordeal

Meanwhile, in Thi Dua Vang’s St. Paul home, the federal agents explained they needed to check paperwork related to her application for a permanent residency credential known as a green card.

After spending two weeks in federal detention, Thi Dua Vang, right, tearfully embraces her husband, A Pao Giang, outside a federal facility in Houston, Texas on Jan. 21, 2026. (Courtesy of Wa Chi Minh Vang)

The agents collected all of the papers she showed them, including her personal I.D. and her Social Security card, in a bag. Then they quickly collected her and transported her to the Bishop Henry Whipple Building, a federal office building at Fort Snelling that has doubled as a detention facility during Operation Metro Surge, the Department of Homeland Security’s weeks-long immigration enforcement action.

The next day, she was boarded onto a plane to El Paso, Texas, where she was held for about a week in a chilly, prison-like setting, surrounded by other women, most of them Spanish-speakers. Unable to speak English or Spanish, Thi Dua Vang said she was at a loss to communicate with others around her. On Jan. 12, she was boarded onto yet another plane, where she was the only woman among a large group of Latin men.

From her best understanding of the situation, she recalled, she thought she was headed back to Vietnam alone.

“She has no criminal history,” said Wa Chi Minh Vang, at a loss to understand why the government would attempt to deport her, while translating questions from a reporter to her and her husband during a recent interview. “She has no criminal anything. She works in a grocery store and comes home. She’s been here just two years.”

The airplane taxied out toward the runway, and then taxied back, she said. Her name was called. She was taken off the plane and placed back in detention, with little understanding of why. Within three days, she was transported to another federal facility, this one in Houston, Texas, where she shared another chilly detention cell with 20 other women, most of them Spanish speakers.

During her two weeks in detention, food consisted of a light soup for breakfast, a potato for lunch and another for dinner. She was never offered the opportunity to go outside for fresh air, to stretch her legs or see the sun.

A court appearance on Jan. 20 resulted in an offer: she could get out of detention on a $3,500 bond. Her family, through an attorney, agreed to pay the sum, though it was unclear why she would be considered a flight risk or on what charges she was being held on. Wa Chi Minh Vang and her husband drove for the better part of two days, spending the night in Oklahoma City. At 3 p.m. on Jan. 21, they received an email indicating Thi Dua Vang would be freed within three hours.

Even driving as fast as they could without getting pulled over, they were still at least seven hours away.

Thi Dua Vang with her and husband Apao Yang talk to a reporter at an undisclosed location on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Released, and then hounded

Released from the federal detention facility in Houston near 8 p.m. with her cell phone but no documents, Thi Dua Vang made a plaintive call to her family. She had nowhere to go but to linger outside the federal buildings, which would not allow her to stay in the lobby.

“Are you guys coming?” she asked. “They released me outside.”

Her husband and brother were still almost four hours away, they said. They asked her to use her phone to take pictures of her whereabouts so they could use the surroundings as landmarks to find her. At 11 p.m., the three were tearfully reunited, having overcome just the first two-week hurdle in what’s become an ongoing immigration nightmare.

Once back in Minnesota, Thi Dua Vang found she had lost her job at the grocery store as someone had already taken her place. She checked in with ICE officials, who told her to make annual visits to their office from now on. Her husband and brother brought her to Driver and Vehicle Services to see about replacing her missing I.D. and other documents confiscated but never returned by ICE.

Then, at 11 a.m. on Jan. 27, came another knock on her door. It was federal agents — again. This time, she knew not to open up for them. They returned on the afternoon of Jan. 31, but again walked away empty-handed, though it did not appear they walked far. Relatives spotted two large Black vehicles parked on either side of her home until 2 a.m. the next morning.

Since then, she’s gone into hiding with her husband, praying that ICE will finally leave her alone.

“She’s very, very scared,” Wa Chi Minh Vang said. Her husband is equally apprehensive but also optimistic. America is supposed to be the land of the free, he said. For two years, for his family, it had been.

“He’s scared of driving,” Wa Chi Minh Vang said. “He says, ‘We’re not angry. We suffered persecution in Vietnam and went to Thailand, and we came to this country. We trust God. We don’t have the power to do anything, but we trust God.’”

As of Wednesday afternoon, an online fundraiser on GoFundMe.com — tinyurl.com/ThiDuaFund — had raised more than $30,000 for Thi Dua Vang’s family from more than 770 donations.

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Bernie Sanders and Ron DeSantis don’t agree on much, but the data-center boom is a rare exception. Vermont’s Democratic Socialist senator and Florida’s right-wing governor want to slam the brakes on the hundreds of resource-intensive new facilities springing up across the country to power the artificial intelligence industry. And both point to profits, not the public good, as the real factor motivating the boom.

In many ways, the convergence was inevitable. Public wariness about the data-center industry is growing, and politicians could no longer ignore the outcry. Public skepticism of AI is also ubiquitous. Merriam-Webster chose slop as its 2025 word of the year because, at the same time AI is enabling telemedicine and driving cars, it’s also spreading fake news, nonconsensual nudified images and synthetic propaganda.

So when two politicians representing two ideological extremes start sounding alike, maybe it’s time to listen.

In December, DeSantis convened a roundtable discussion to highlight the growing threat of AI.

“What we don’t want to do is be subsidizing or put a thumb on the scale for technologies that are going to supplant the human experience,” he said.

He called for an “Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights” to safeguard data privacy, parental controls and consumer protections. And he backed legislation that requires data centers to pay the full cost of their energy and water use and allows local communities to stop data-center construction that doesn’t mesh with their growth plans. “You should not have to pay one dime more in utility costs, water, power, any of this stuff, because these are some of the most wealthy companies in the history of humanity,” he argued.

DeSantis had convened the roundtable just days after the Trump administration issued an executive order seeking to limit state-level AI regulations, warning that “a patchwork of 50 different regulatory regimes” could hinder US competitiveness with China. But DeSantis challenged Trump’s justification for the data center expansion, arguing that the tech industry is motivated to accelerate AI growth — with its “fake songs and fake videos” — because it is driven primarily by profits. “Their goal is not to beat China,” he said.

DeSantis’ comments were remarkably similar to those made by Sanders just weeks before. Sanders had released a report that raised questions about the industry’s impact on American jobs, the economy and young people. It concluded: “Technology can and should improve the lives of working people. But it will not happen if decisions are made in boardrooms by billionaires who only care about short-term profits.”

Sanders has also joined environmentalists and called for Congress to pass a moratorium on building new data centers. “I think you’ve got to slow this process down,” he said.

Both are right. The bipartisan distrust of this industry gives politicians a rare leverage point to push back against the Trump-aligned tech bros and start asking some serious questions about the AI arms race. What is the goal? How much generative AI is necessary? Does America really need AI-generated slop? And isn’t it time to put some quality controls on these resource-consuming giants?

For years, the nation’s tech companies have quietly gone about signing nondisclosure agreements and lobbying elected officials to build data centers to power their AI technology with little regard for the cost and impact on the public. But when the nonstop low-frequency hums from the buildings started to annoy people in neighboring residential communities, when electric bills started to rise for homeowners and small businesses, and when local water resources started to strain from the cooling demands of the massive computers, public protests got louder. Politicians started getting voted out of office. And the industry started to wise up.

“To say data centers are unpopular right now is probably an understatement, to say the least,” Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy for the Data Center Coalition, told a Florida legislative committee in December.

Diorio represents tech giants like Meta, Alphabet and Amazon Web Services, and is making the rounds to statehouses across the country as lawmakers file bills to impose new rules on the companies.

Arizona, Georgia, Maryland and Michigan legislators are considering bills to repeal data-center tax incentives. Georgia, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, Wisconsin and Arizona are advancing bills to prohibit data centers from entering into nondisclosure agreements that hide details of the development plans from the public. Eleven states are considering legislation to require utility regulators to develop a new rate class so that data centers foot the bill for their power needs. And lawmakers in Georgia, Oklahoma, Vermont and Virginia have proposed moratoriums on new data-center construction.

But politicians don’t move as fast as tech companies, and in many ways, the industry is already several steps ahead of them. At hearings before Florida legislators, data-center developers testified that many companies are bypassing their water challenges by moving to cooling systems that use closed-loop water technology to reduce massive water consumption.

But because demand isn’t slowing for the build-out of centers that use 500 megawatts or more of energy a day — enough to power a mid-sized city — getting sufficient energy supplied in a timely manner, regardless of the environmental implications, is now the industry priority, according to a report last month from industry-focused Data Center Frontier.

Plans are emerging in Florida, for example, to build self-sufficient energy centers using turbines that burn greenhouse gas-emitting natural gas. Developers said the industry is also working on developing small modular nuclear reactions to power data centers. (NPR reported recently that the Trump administration has secretly rewritten environmental, safety and security rules to allow for development of the experimental reactors.)

The energy appetite is insatiable. According to BloombergNEF, data centers’ energy demand will triple in a decade — from 34.7 gigawatts in 2024 to 106 gigawatts by 2035. That’s the equivalent of powering more than 80 million homes.

In many ways, states created this monster. Lured by the economic development potential of the tech industry, state and local governments for years have offered tax breaks to the industry without managing the impact they would have on their energy grid, especially during peak demand.

For his part, DeSantis has hardly been consistent on this issue. Last June, he signed a major tax-relief bill that extended the deadline to apply for Florida’s tax credit for data centers from 2027 to 2037. Even as he says he wants to slow data center development in his state, he’s giving the industry a tax break to encourage it. It’s classic hypocrisy.

Perhaps DeSantis now sees the error of his ways. A version of his bill giving local communities control of their data center fate is moving through the Florida legislature — although it inexplicably gives data centers a one-year exemption from public records requirements. Hopefully, other state and local officials will also listen to the public outcry, put the brakes on data centers, and take a more measured path forward. “They ignored you,” is now an easy campaign slogan. Even AI could write it.

Mary Ellen Klas is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. A former capital bureau chief for the Miami Herald, she has covered politics and government for more than three decades.

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After trailing early, and without the hammer in the final end, the U.S. stole one final point in the 10th to defeat China, 6-5, in group play Sunday in Cortina D’Ampezza, Italy.

With the win, the U.S. improved to 4-1 in group play, a record for an American women’s team.

Down to their last throw with the match tied 5-5, skip Tabitha Peterson curved a perfect shot to the button, knocking out China’s closest stone and putting the U.S. into scoring position.

After nine-plus ends of blocking moves, China had one last chance to win it, but the shot was difficult, and while it was on target, it didn’t have enough juice to dislodge Peterson’s stone from the center.

Team Peterson, which features East Metro sisters Tabitha and Tara Peterson, as well as former Gopher Taylor Anderson-Heide and Duluth’s Cory Thiesse, The U.S. has two preliminary round matches remaining, starting with host Italy on Tuesday, then against defending champion Great Britain on Wednesday.

Thiesse became the first American woman to medal in curling when she and mixed-doubles partner Korey Dropkin won silver in the Games’ first week.

The U.S. has never advanced to the Olympic medal round in women’s curling, although Team Peterson won a bronze medal at the 2021 world championships. In 2022 at Beijing, Team Peterson finished pool play 4-5.

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For Ramadan, the monthlong Muslim holiday of fasting which begins this year on Tuesday evening, Feb. 17, families and friends gather for festive dinners to break the fast.

Tahini, sesame seed paste, is a nutritional powerhouse that’s well suited for Ramadan dishes. Popular in Middle Eastern cooking, its flavor profile — nutty, slightly bitter and creamy —makes it versatile in the kitchen. Most tahini dishes are savory appetizers but tahini is also used in sweet specialties like halva. Thus it is useful for iftar, the sunset meal, and for suhoor, the pre-dawn meal eaten before the day’s fasting.

While meat is a traditional staple for iftar, appetizers are often plant-based. Made with vegetables and grains, their fiber promotes satiety, enabling people to eat less meat.  Because tahini is rich in heart-healthy monounsaturated fats and protein, it provides an energy boost and helps people feel full for longer.

Basic tahini sauce, made of tahini paste mixed with lemon juice, garlic and water, is a luscious-textured sauce often served with grilled vegetables, salads, fish and falafel, and can replace cream in dressings and dips. Like natural peanut butter, tahini should be stirred before being used.

Tahini’s bitterness balances the intense sweetness of dates, the traditional Ramadan break-the-fast food; stuffing dates with tahini is a Ramadan treat. A popular breakfast spread is tahini mixed with date molasses; in Istanbul, some call such a spread “Turkish Nutella” or “liquid halva”.

Quinoa patties are served with chanterelles and topped with tahini sauce. (Photo by Yakir Levy)

Quinoa Patties with Chanterelles and Tahini Sauce

Quinoa patties become an elegant dish when dressed up with tahini sauce and exotic mushrooms. You can substitute shiitakes or oyster mushrooms for the chanterelles.

Yield: 3 or 4 servings

INGREDIENTS

Tahini sauce:

1 small garlic clove, minced
3 tablespoons tahini paste, stirred before measuring
1 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 to 2 tablespoons water
Salt to taste

Quinoa patties and chanterelles:

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
One 1.1-pound (500-gram) roll of cooked quinoa, cut in 6 to 8 slices
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 pound fresh chanterelles
1 garlic clove, minced
Red pepper flakes to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Tahini sauce: In a mini food processor blend garlic, tahini paste, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 tablespoon water and salt. Add more lemon juice or water to adjust consistency and taste.

2. Quinoa patties: Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat. Season quinoa slices with salt and pepper; add to pan. Sear quinoa slices on both sides until golden brown. Remove from pan.

3. Chanterelles: Add remaining tablespoon olive oil to pan and heat over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms; cook for 8 minutes or until browned. Add garlic, salt, pepper and pepper flakes and cook about 1 minute.

4. Serve quinoa patties with chanterelles and tahini sauce.

A platter of roasted vegetable is served with Pepper-Swirled Tahini. (Photo by Yakir Levy)

Pepper-Swirled Tahini with Roasted Vegetables

Greek yogurt makes tahini creamier and a good counterpoint for the pepper sauce.

Yield: 4 servings

INGREDIENTS

Tahini yogurt sauce:

1 small garlic clove, minced
3 tablespoons tahini paste, stirred before measuring
1 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 to 2 tablespoons water
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
Salt to taste
2 pounds vegetables, such as whole Anaheim or jalapeño peppers, medium-wide strips of sweet peppers, sliced Chinese eggplants, sliced zucchini, half slices sweet onions, halved cremini mushrooms
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, or to taste
Salt, freshly ground pepper and Aleppo or other semi-hot red pepper to taste
1/2 cup thick salsa such as taqueria-style salsa

DIRECTIONS

1. Tahini yogurt sauce: In a mini food processor blend garlic, tahini paste, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 tablespoon water and salt. Transfer to a bowl. Stir in yogurt. Add more lemon juice or water to adjust consistency and taste.

2. Heat oven or air fryer toaster oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl toss vegetables with enough olive oil to moisten them. Sprinkle with salt, black and red pepper; toss to combine.

3. Spread vegetables on a baking sheet (lined with parchment paper or foil if desired). Roast for 10 minutes. Turn over; drizzle with more olive oil if needed. Roast for 10 to 15 more minutes or until tender. (They roast faster in an air fryer toaster oven or convection oven than in a standard oven.)

4. Put whole peppers in a bowl, cover and let stand for 10 minutes. Peel when cool enough to handle. Remove caps;  scrape out pepper seeds.

5. Arrange vegetables on a plate. Set a bowl of salsa in center of plate. Spoon tahini yogurt sauce onto salsa’s center. With a knife, swirl tahini sauce gently into salsa.

Red Pepper Baba Ghanoush is made with roasted Chinese eggplant, tahini sauce, roasted peppers and labneh. (Photo by Yakir Levy)

Red Pepper Baba Ghanoush

Chinese eggplants roast quickly and are easy to turn into a creamy red pepper dip. Just add tahini sauce, roasted peppers from a jar, and labneh — strained yogurt that is almost as thick as cheese.

Yield: 3 or 4 servings

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 pounds Chinese eggplants
2 large garlic cloves, minced
3 to 4 tablespoons tahini paste (stirred before measuring)
1 to 2 tablespoons strained fresh lemon juice
1 to 2 tablespoons water
2 fire-roasted peppers (from a jar)
2 to 4 tablespoons labneh (or Greek yogurt)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil (for drizzling)
2 teaspoons chopped Italian parsley (garnish)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat broiler or Roast function of air fryer toaster oven (convection oven). Prick each eggplant 3 or 4 times with a sharp knife.

2. Broil or roast eggplants, turning a few times, until very tender when pressed on neck end, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove eggplants; let stand until cool enough to handle.

3. Cut off eggplant caps. Halve eggplants lengthwise. Scoop out eggplant pulp. Chop pulp with a knife.

4. Make red pepper tahini sauce by blending minced garlic, tahini paste, 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 1 tablespoon water in a food processor. Add roasted peppers and blend until smooth.

5. Add labneh and pulse until blended. Add chopped eggplant pulp; pulse just until mixture is blended. Gradually add more water or lemon juice if needed. Season with salt and pepper.

6. Spread on a serving plate or on bread. Serve drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with parsley.

Persimmon Cake is topped with a halva glaze made with powdered sugar and lemon juice as well as chopped pistachios. (Photo by Yakir Levy)

Persimmon Cake with Halva Glaze

In this cake’s glaze a touch of tahini balances the sweetness of the powdered sugar. Use soft persimmons for the puree; slice firm persimmons for garnish.

Yield: 2 small cakes (32 small portions)

INGREDIENTS

Persimmon cake:

2 cups all purpose flour (260 grams)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter (4 ounces or 110 grams), room temperature
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar (240 grams)
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups persimmon puree (4 or 5 persimmons)
1 cup dried cranberries
2/3 cup red walnuts, chopped

Persimmon halva glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar
4 teaspoons lemon juice
4 tablespoons persimmon puree
2 teaspoons tahini paste (stirred before measuring), or to taste

Garnish:

About 1/3 cup chopped pistachios
Slices of small firm persimmons

DIRECTIONS

1. Cake: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 7 1/2-inch square pans with foil. Butter foil.

2. Mix flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.

3. With a stand mixer, beat butter until smooth; add sugar and beat until smooth. Add eggs; beat until well blended. Add vanilla; beat until blended.

4. Add half of dry ingredient mixture to butter mixture; stir until blended. Stir in persimmon puree, followed by remaining dry ingredient mixture. Stir until blended. Stir in dried cranberries and walnuts.

5. Spoon batter into pans. Smooth tops. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of each cake comes out clean, about 25 to 30 minutes.

6. Cool cake in pans on racks for 10 minutes. Turn out onto cake racks. Let cool completely.

7. Glaze: Whisk half of powdered sugar with the lemon juice until blended. Whisk in remaining powdered sugar. Add persimmon puree and whisk until blended. Whisk in tahini.

8. Spread glaze in thin layer over cakes. Sprinkle with pistachios. Let stand several hours or refrigerate overnight until glaze sets.

9. Cut cake in pieces and put on a serving plate. Surround with persimmon slices.

This Mushroom Tahini Toast is inspired by a recipe in Dr. Michael Crupain’s latest book, “The Power Five: Essential Foods for Optimum Health.” (Photo by Yakir Levy)

Mushroom Tahini Toast

For this appetizer inspired by a recipe from Dr. Michael Crupain’s latest book, “The Power Five: Essential Foods for Optimum Health,” you spread toast with pure tahini paste, then top it with sauteed mushrooms.

Yield: 4 or 5 servings

INGREDIENTS

1 pound exotic mushrooms, such as shiitake, oyster or maitake
1/2 teaspoon Turkish pepper flakes, Aleppo pepper or other pepper flakes
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped
Salt to taste
1 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons tahini paste
4 or 5 slices whole wheat or sourdough bread, toasted and rubbed with a raw garlic clove

DIRECTIONS

1. Coarsely chop mushrooms; add to a bowl with pepper flakes and oil. Toss to coat mushrooms.

2. Cook mushrooms in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat for 8 to 10 minutes or until browned. Add garlic, shallot, thyme and salt. Sauté for 4 minutes or until shallot is soft. Stir in wine; cook until evaporated. If mixture is too dry, add 1 to 2 tablespoons water.

3. Spread tahini on toast. Spoon mushrooms over toast, sprinkle with salt, and serve.

Roasted Eggplant Salad with Tangerine Tahini balances sweet tangerine juice with lemon juice, minced garlic, salt and red pepper powder. (Photo by Yakir Levy)

Roasted Eggplant Salad with Tangerine Tahini

Adding sweet tangerine juice to tahini sauce might seem surprising but tahini eggplant drizzled with silan (date syrup) is popular in Israeli restaurants. Our dish isn’t sweet. Tangerine zest, lemon juice, minced garlic, salt and red pepper powder balance the flavor.

Yield: 2 or 3 servings

INGREDIENTS

Tangerine tahini sauce:

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, or to taste
2 to 3 tablespoons tangerine juice
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons tahini, stirred before measuring
Pinch of salt, or to taste
1 tablespoon cold water (optional), more if needed
1/2 teaspoon grated tangerine zest, or more to taste

Roasted Eggplant and Salad:

1 Chinese eggplant (about 9-10 ounces), sliced diagonally 3/8 to 1/2 inch thick
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
Salt, freshly ground pepper and hot red pepper powder to taste
5 romaine or other lettuce leaves, cut in bite size pieces
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tangerine, cut in rounds, then in half slices
Walnuts, preferably red (garnish)

DIRECTIONS

1. Tangerine tahini sauce: In a medium bowl mix garlic, lemon juice and tangerine juice. Stir in tahini paste. Keep stirring until sauce is smooth and thick but still pourable. Add more tangerine juice or water, 1 teaspoon at a time, to adjust consistency and taste. Stir in tangerine zest. (You will have extra sauce to enjoy for 2 days.)

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. If you like, line a roasting pan with foil. Set eggplant slices in pan. Brush them with about 1 tablespoon olive oil; sprinkle with salt and black and red pepper. Turn them over; repeat brushing with olive oil and sprinkling seasonings. Roast for 17 to 25 minutes (or 15 minutes using the Roast function of an air fryer toaster oven), turning them once, or until tender to your taste.

3. Make a bed of chopped lettuce; drizzle with light dressing made by whisking 1 teaspoon olive oil with 1 teaspoon lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Set eggplant slices on lettuce and spoon tangerine tahini sauce over them. Garnish with tangerine pieces and walnuts.

Faye Levy is the author of “Feast from the Mideast.”

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