Description
This roasted eggplant salad is a perfect snack or salad for any time! Filled with smoky eggplant and juicy tomatoes, this salad is great spread over some crusty bread or as a side to any meal!
Ingredients
Scale
- 3 large eggplants or 4–5 baby eggplants if you can find them
- 1 tomato (diced)
- 1/2 of a red onion (finely diced and soaked in cold water for a minute)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- salt and freshly crushed black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F. Or preheat your grill to medium high.
- Wash and dry your eggplants well. Place them on a baking sheet or roasting pan.
- Poke some holes in the eggplants with a fork to give the steam somewhere to go. Otherwise these babies will blow up.
- Pour some oil on top of the eggplants so that they don’t dry up while cooking.
- Place in the oven or on the grill and cook for about 30 minutes. Or until they look deflated.
- Place them in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap so that they can “steam”. This process will make the removal of the skin much easier. If you have time, let the eggplants cool, it will be easier to handle them while removing the skin. If you are like me and you don’t have time, then just put on some rubber gloves and work fast!
- Cut off the stem and remove the skin by simply peeling it off. If any flesh pulls away from the eggplant with the skin, just use a knife to scrape it off.
- Drop the cleaned eggplants into a colander and leave to drain for about 10 minutes. Usually, if I haven’t had time to cool them, I place a bowl underneath the colander and stick it in the freezer. That way it drains and cools at the same time!
- Place the eggplants on a large cutting board and run your chefs knife through it a couple times. Just rock your knife back and forth to create a paste. Place in a bowl and smash up a bit more with a spoon, just so that it’s one “paste”.
- Chop up your tomato and onion finely. Add to the eggplant mixture along with salt, pepper and good extra virgin olive oil.
- Spread on some good crispy bread, crackers or serve alongside your favorite entree.
- Category: Vegan
- Cuisine: Moldovian