I've cooked my way through all 264 recipes
in The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook!

May 27, 2010

Tart and Spicy Roasted Eggplant Salad (p. 56)

Today we're having our Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon at work, and the menu theme is salad. I wanted to think outside of the box a little bit, so I decided to make an eggplant salad. 

The recipe says that the eggplant would be best roasted over a charcoal grill, but can also be done in the oven, which is what I did. Before beginning to roast it, the eggplant needs to be pricked with a fork about a dozen times so that it doesn't explode. I followed this advice very carefully.

The process is much quicker on a grill, but in the oven it needs to be roasted for about forty minutes. I rotated it every five minutes or so.


When it comes out, its all withered and gross looking. Peel the dark skin away from the fruit and toss it (the fruit, not the discarded withering skins) in a bowl to be smooshed up with a potato masher. 

Slowly add plain yogurt, olive oil, and lemon juice to the bowl.

While the eggplant is roasting, roast two chili peppers (poblanos if you can find them, though I used serranos) over the gas stove and, once blackened, peel the skins away. Pour any juices from the chilies into the bowl with the eggplant.

Coarsely chop one of the chilies to be mixed with salt and garlic. The second is cut into narrow strips to be placed on top of the salad, once it is ready.

Once the garlic/chili mixture is ground together, add it into the eggplant salad. Mix together thoroughly and adorn with the remaining chili.


Um. I don't love this. I also wouldn't call it salad. It's more a weird, eggplant-y dip. Our poor volunteers will probably think I don't appreciate them in the least bit.

eggplant -- $2.21
chilies -- $.34
yogurt -- $2.99 (with the majority left for breakfasts)
Total Cost of Tart and Spicy Roasted Eggplant Salad: $5.54

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Thanks for dropping by! Love, Katrina.