Roasted eggplant and red pepper salad
Before Covid I started inviting friends over for a glass of wine and some bites instead of a multi course dinner. It’s easy to prepare, I can sit and enjoy the company and there isn’t much clean up to do afterwards. This does not mean they have to go home hungry. You can prepare a few salads to serve with breads, a couple of dips (hummus, tzatziki etc.) a few fruits, a nice selection of cheeses and if you are not vegetarian, a selection of charcuterie or vegan equivalent. This eggplant salad is good for such occasions as a topping for bread or you can serve it as a salad on its own, which is what I did here.
Eggplants are beautiful now, shiny, heavy with moisture and blemish free. That is how you want to buy them.
To make:
Cut a slit on top of the eggplant and roast in 450F oven. If you have a grill try grilling it or even roast over fire if you have that option. The eggplant should char nicely outside and collapse onto itself. This will give the salad a natural smokey aroma. Let cool, then remove the flesh and cut into chunks. Leave in a colander to drain excess liquid. that liquid can be a little bitter.
Roast one or two red peppers over a flame, on a very hot grill or on under the broiler until the skin is blackened. Leave in a bowl, covered, until cool and the then peel or rub off the charred skin, remove seeds and pith and cut into chunks.
Combine drained eggplant and red pepper, add a handful of chopped parsley. Grate a garlic clove on top and squeeze a wedge of lemon over. Season well with salt and pepper. Sometimes I drizzle tahini sauce over but not today.
Serve with good bread or as I did here with crisp bread. Recipe for crisp bread in the next post.
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