Eggplant Salad
Eggplant is one of those vegetables that I truly adore and this eggplant salad is no exception.
Regardless of how it is prepared, I am a huge fan.
This particular salad is nice in that it is different from most eggplant salads.
The yogurt adds a different and refreshing taste to this side dish.
I woke up this morning with sumac chicken rolls on my agenda today.
I love waking up these days to the prospect of doing something fun and rewarding on a personal level.
I love sharing my recipes and connecting with like minded people.
Hearing what others are doing with food can be very inspiring to me.
In today’s case we will have the chicken rolls for lunch, and I will make a batch of the eggplant salad to go on the side.
I made a chocolate fudge cake a couple days ago for a barbeque we had, and that will be dessert for today.
With all this food around, I have started intermittent fasting as a way not to over eat, which is exceptionally easy to do when you cook all day every day.
I skip either breakfast or dinner and eat only in an eight hour period.
The benefits of this kind of eating are many beyond just weight loss.
It allows you to burn more fat, lowers blood sugar and insulin levels, increases mental clarity, increases energy and can even possibly reverse type 2 diabetes.
With all those benefits, and the fact that I do already feel like I have more energy, I’m more than happy to carry on with this method.
Recently during the Spring I bought a box load of eggplants when I was down in the valley.
The great thing with so many eggplants is all the possibilities and options of things to be made.
They can be cut in half, the skin sliced slightly several times and marinated for a later time for cooking or frying.
I also cut some into rounds, baked them, and froze them for use at another time.
I also like to pickle eggplant when I can.
It’s so exciting because there are a ton of things you can do with eggplants.
And the most exciting thing is that you can eat them in the end.
There is so much to be said for making your food yourself in small batches, it really allows you to put part of yourself in the food.
If you haven’t see the film, Like Water For Chocolate, give it a watch and you’ll know what I mean.
Mario Batali, the famous Italian American chef, once said “When you cut that eggplant up and you roast it in the oven and you make the tomato sauce and you put it on top, your soul is in that food, and there’s something about that that can never be made by a company that has three million employees.”
When things get too big and impersonal food suffers.
I’m sure you’ve had the experience of soulless food before.
After years of travel and eating in airports and airplanes, always on the go, it is so nice and satisfying to have home cooked meals again on a regular basis.
Nothing beats that kind of food.
This eggplant salad is one of those dishes to savour.
Eggplant Salad with Yogurt
Ingredients
- 6 Eggplant small
- 1 cup Yogurt
- 2 Garlic Cloves crushed
- 4 tsp Olive Oil
- ¼ cup Mint fresh, chopped
- ¼ cup Fennel Greens chopped
- 3 Spring Onions chopped
- 3 tbsp Lemon Juice
- ½ tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Black Pepper ground
- 1 tsp Sumac
- 1 tsp Green Chili chopped
- 2 tbsp Pine Nuts raw
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
- Slice eggplant into rounds. Place on tray and bake for 20 minutes or until done.
- In a bowl mix the yogurt, garlic, olive oil, mint, fennel, green onions, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
- Add the cooked eggplant to the yogurt mixture and mix in.
- Add pine nuts, sumac, and chili peppers. Mix thoroughly.
- Serve.
Love your food! It reminds me of home( Oran, Algeria). Here in England it’s hard to find the right ingredients as the UK is still Way behind in the world of cuisine. Just one question, is there an alternative to deglaz a pan without using Alcohol?. Many thanks and hope to hear from you soon.
Kind Regards
Kader
Thanks for your message Kader! It can be hard to find speciality ingredients in the UK but thankfully with the rise of Amazon and local speciality shops, it’s becoming a little easier. An alternative for deglazing a pan would be either white wine vinegar or lemon juice!