Roasted Eggplant Salad Ingredients
This refreshing and flavorful salad is packed with fresh vegetables and a delicious dressing. In addition to roasted eggplant, the salad features cucumber, red and green peppers, tomatoes, and scallions. The tangy dressing acts as a marinade for the eggplant as well as ties the whole salad together at the end. This amazing Roasted Eggplant Salad was one of her recipes in the cookbook. I must have inherited my grandmother’s love for eggplant, because I am also obsessed with her Stuffed Eggplant recipe. In this simple salad, we combine roasted eggplant with fresh veggies and a very simple dressing. The result is a vegan salad that is perfect for bringing to outdoor picnics and BBQs. With no mayo or dairy, this is a great recipe for hot days!
How To Make Eggplant Salad
Here is a brief overview of how this roasted eggplant salad recipe comes together. For the full recipe including all measurements, scroll to the recipe at the bottom of the page.
Roast the eggplant. Be careful not to overcook it. See more on this below.Make the dressing. Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing in a bowl.Marinate the eggplant. While it is still warm, chop the eggplant into cubes and put them in a sealable container. Pour the dressing over top and refrigerate for two hours. Add other ingredients. Toss the eggplant with the diced vegetables.
Peel the eggplant and slice it into one-inch-thick pieces. Lay the pieces on your baking sheet in a single layer. See my recommendation for my favorite baking sheets below. Lightly salt the eggplant and let it stand. This will help bring out some of the water in the eggplant. Just like in my Zucchini Lasagna, this is a key step so you don’t get a watery dish at the end.Broil. In this roasted eggplant recipe, we are using the broiler setting of your oven. Broil for about five minutes or until golden brown. Flip the eggplant and roast for another five minutes. Watch it closely as it can burn quickly on such high heat.
The dressing for this is pretty simple. While it has several ingredients, many of them are already waiting for you in your pantry waiting to be used.
Red Wine Vinegar: This brings the majority of the flavor to the recipe. I don’t recommend swapping it for a different kind of vinegar.Olive Oil: A basic in dressings, you want to reach for the extra virgin olive oil when you are making salad dressing. It has the best flavor and the lightest taste.Lemon Juice: When you add lemon juice to a dressing recipe, I urge you to go with fresh. It brings a much better flavor than bottled.Red Wine: I’m kind of obsessed with the fact that grandma tossed in a little dollop of wine. If you don’t drink, you can definitely skip this, just taste the dressing at the end to ensure that it doesn’t need tweaking.Garlic: Adding the garlic to the dressing is pretty genius here. Since this dressing is also a marinade, it really brings home that flavor as opposed to just adding it with the rest of the veggies.Honey: We are adding three acids to this recipe (vinegar, wine, and lemon juice), so a dash of honey works really well to balance them without making it sweet.Basil, Oregano, and Thyme: These three work together in harmony to add great flavor to the dish.Salt & Pepper
Easy Orzo Salad: This is a pasta salad with Mediterranean flavors, and it is the perfect dish to pass. I could eat it for days on end and not tire of it.Chopped Salad: When all else fails, this easy chopped salad is the perfect fall back with the most amazing dressing.Asian Cucumber Salad: This one is so simple to make, but it is a great side dish for so many recipes.
If you make this eggplant salad or any of my other recipes, please leave a comment and let me know what you think!
