This Mediterranean Grilled Eggplant Salad is flavorful and delicious! Serve as a side dish or as a vegetarian main course with green vegetables and couscous.
In 2010, Alex recorded a book entitled food problems. It was a small paperback by New York Times columnist Mark Bittman about how the way we eat affects our bodies and the planet. He urged readers to prioritize whole, unprocessed foods and eat vegetables. It was the first time we had heard the case presented so simply and honestly, without judgement. Just try one homemade vegetarian meal a week! he urged. So we did. And little by little we fell in love with cooking vegetarian dishes together. So we started a food blog to share some of the recipes we cooked. We called it A Couple Cooks.
So really, if we hadn’t met Mark Bittman, A Couple Cooks wouldn’t exist. And we would lead very different lives. Read on to learn more about Mark Bittman and this Mediterranean Eggplant Salad recipe from his new book.
Related: Grilled eggplant with herb quinoa
About the book: How to Grill Anything
Ten years later, Alex and I have become cookbook authors and food photographers, and our careers now revolve around food. So it’s our incredible pleasure to announce the latest book from Mark Bittman, someone who has had such an impact on our careers. It says: How to grill anything, and hence this Mediterranean eggplant salad. Early on in our marriage, Alex and I enjoyed cooking from Bittman’s vegetarian encyclopedia, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. This new book is a similar concept but it’s all about the BBQ, well, everything (including meat).
Make this Eggplant Salad
Alex and I are all about the BBQ everything, so the book suits us perfectly. This Mediterranean salad of grilled eggplant with yoghurt caught our eye immediately. It’s simple: grilled eggplant and tomatoes with a yogurt and mint sauce, but it’s so delicious. This is one of those recipes where the sum of its parts is greater than the whole. Serve as a side to burgers or chicken; It’s easy to throw the eggplant and tomatoes on the already hot grill.
We decided to serve the grilled aubergine salad as a vegetarian main course: we mixed it with whole grain couscous and green vegetables, with naan as a side. We also grilled extra cherry tomatoes so they can be served as a side dish. Another idea is to serve grilled aubergines in a pita with crunchy lettuce and a ripe tomato.
However you serve it, this Grilled Eggplant Salad is a summertime staple (plus the Frose, of course). Congratulations to Mark Bittman on another fantastic book: you have changed our lives in so many ways and we are so grateful to you!
Want more with eggplant? Try our best eggplant recipes, from eggplant marinara to eggplant parmesan to grilled eggplant sandwiches.
Buy the book
Get a Copy: How to Toast Anything by Mark Bittman
Looking for more salad recipes?
Aside from this Grilled Eggplant Salad, here are some other salad recipes on A Couple Cooks:
This Grilled Eggplant Salad recipe is…
Vegetarian and gluten free.
The description
This Mediterranean Grilled Eggplant Salad is flavorful and delicious! Serve as a side dish or as a vegetarian main course with green vegetables and couscous.
- 1 large eggplant (1 1/2 Pound Sterling)
- ¼ cup Good quality olive oil, more for brushing
- 12 cherry tomatoes (optional on the side)
- 1 ½ cups Natural yoghurt
- 1 clove of garlic
- ¼ cup chopped green onions
- ¼ cup chopped fresh mint
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling
- Black pepper
- To serve (as a vegetarian dish):
- couscous
- Green salad
- pita bread
- Light the coals or heat a gas grill for medium direct grilling. Make sure the grates are clean. If using wooden skewers, soak them about 30 minutes before grilling.
- Cut eggplant into 3/4 inch slices. Brush with oil and season with salt and pepper on both sides. Put tomatoes on skewers. (You can add extra tomato skewers on the side if desired.)
- Place the eggplant on the grill directly over the heat. Close the lid and cook, turning once, until the slices are deep grill marks and tender, 5 to 8 minutes per side; Brush the eggplant with more oil if it looks dry.
- At the same time, grill the tomatoes, turning once, until charred and tender, about 5 minutes. Place both on a cutting board and cut into bite-sized pieces.
- Place the yogurt, garlic, scallions, mint, and lemon juice in a large bowl and mix together. (You can make the recipe up to a day in advance; cover and refrigerate the eggplant and yogurt mixture separately.) Add the tomatoes and eggplant to the yogurt and stir. Serve at room temperature or chilled and garnish with sumac, if desired.
- Category: garnish
- Method: Goal
- Kitchen: Mediterranean Sea
Keywords: Grilled aubergine, aubergine, vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, Mediterranean, aubergine salad, yoghurt, mint,
