Swap out lettuce for roasted eggplant in this simple salad, and you have yourself a robust side dish that is perfect addition to your summer BBQ. For this recipe I used what was in my fridge, but any crunchy vegetable will work. Just chop them up bit sized, mix with roasted mashed eggplant, and dress with a lemony vinaigrette.
Ingredients
- 1 large eggplant (1 to 1.5 lbs)
Dressing
- 1 Tb Dijon or stone ground mustard
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 Tb red wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
Salad
- 2 medium carrots
- 1.5 cups cherry or grape tomatoes
- 1/2 red pepper (~1 cup diced)
- 1/2 large cucumber (~ 1 cup diced)
- 3 to 4 radishes (~1/2 cup diced)
Instructions
- Preheat Oven to 400F.
- Cut eggplant lengthwise. Brush inside with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place face down on a baking sheet.
- Bake until soft, ~25 to 30 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool.
- Make the dressing: In a large bowl, whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, garlic, salt and pepper.
- Dice vegetables for salad. These should be bite sized.
- When the eggplant is cool enough to handle, using a fork, scrape out the insides of the eggplant. This should be soft and easily mash with the fork. Roughly chop any large pieces. Place in bowl with dressing and stir to combine.
- Add other vegetables and stir to combine. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste.