Eggplant Salad with Fresh Vegetables

Name: Eggplant Salad with Fresh Vegetables: Fried with Little Oil
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: Italian cuisine
Ingredients: Eggplants 2-3; Red bell pepper 1; Ripe tomatoes 2; Cucumber 1-2; Purple onion 1; Cilantro 0.5 bunch; Vegetable oil 3 tbsp; Balsamic or wine vinegar 0.5 tsp; Lettuce leaves for serving; Dried oregano 1-2 pinches; Salt, black pepper to taste; Hot chili pepper optional

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30 mins

In summer and fall we love making salads from seasonal vegetables. One of them is eggplant salad. It’s a simple appetizer that comes together very quickly. All you need are young eggplants and a few fresh vegetables you can easily find. Because eggplants soak up oil as they fry, no extra dressing is needed.

To cut the amount of vegetable oil for frying several times over, we use a simple method: oil goes only on the bottom of the pan and on the top of each eggplant round. That is plenty to fry this vegetable well, and it comes out golden and tender.

All the other vegetables are used fresh, and they make the appetizer juicy. Usually these are slightly overripe cucumbers, peeled, and ripe tomatoes, seeded. They are cut into large cubes. The sweet onion is cut into very thin strips. For a light pickle, the onion is first mixed with a little grape vinegar.

If you like, you can add some finely chopped hot chili pepper, since many people enjoy a bit of heat in vegetable dishes. Cilantro gives the appetizer a delicate aroma. The salad is served at room temperature and needs no chilling or soaking time. We always put appetizers like this on green lettuce leaves before serving.

Ideally they should be young eggplants with undeveloped seeds. It’s easier to fry rounds of equal size, so choose even, cylindrical eggplants.

People often say that eggplant is bitter. Honestly, I haven’t come across a bitter one in a quarter of a century. Modern varieties of this vegetable apparently no longer have this unpleasant quality. Still, letting the slices sit in coarse salt and then rinsing them with water does help with bitterness. The catch is that you will then have trouble frying them evenly and keeping the slices in shape.

Ingredients

4 servings

Eggplants 2-3
Red bell pepper 1
Ripe tomatoes 2
Cucumber 1-2
Purple onion 1
Cilantro 0.5 bunch
Vegetable oil 3 tbsp
Balsamic or wine vinegar 0.5 tsp
Lettuce leaves for serving
Dried oregano 1-2 pinches
Salt, black pepper to taste
Hot chili pepper optional

Step-by-step recipe

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How to fry the eggplants

Eggplant salad with fresh vegetables is simple and quick to make. Only the eggplants need cooking: fry them in a little vegetable oil, then let them cool. The eggplants should be young, with undeveloped seeds and dark skin. The other vegetables go in raw.

Eggplants soak up oil like a sponge as they fry, so don’t overdo the oil. To keep the calories down, no more fat is added to the appetizer.

Slice the eggplants: wash them, dry thoroughly and cut crosswise into rounds 15 mm thick.

Fry the eggplants until golden. Heat a skillet over medium heat, brush the bottom with vegetable oil and lay the eggplant rounds in a single layer. The oil is absorbed almost immediately. If they don’t all fit, fry in batches, brushing the bottom each time.
Brush the slices with vegetable oil using a pastry brush and flip them right away. This amount of oil is quite enough for frying. Turning often, fry the eggplant without a lid on both sides until golden and tender. With this method, two large eggplants take 2-3 tbsp of vegetable oil. The flesh fries through nicely and stays firm, which matters for the salad.

How to prepare the fresh vegetables

Cut the peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes while the fried slices cool. Seed the red pepper and cut it into cubes. Peel the cucumbers and cut them into large cubes too. To keep the eggplant salad juicy, I use “old,” slightly overripe cucumbers. Peel the tomatoes, remove the seeds and dice them. If you like, add some finely chopped chili to the salad. Put the vegetables in a large bowl and toss.
Pickle the onion: peel the sweet purple onion, cut it into very thin strips, add 0.5 tsp of balsamic or wine vinegar and toss.

How to assemble the salad

Combine the vegetables and onion and add coarsely chopped cilantro.
Add the eggplants and spices: once the fried eggplants have cooled to room temperature, add them to the bowl. Add a little salt and pepper and 1-2 pinches of dried oregano.
Toss the vegetables. There’s no need to add vegetable oil. But if you think it’s needed, add just a little.

Serving

Put the salad on lettuce leaves: eggplant salad is best served in salad bowls or large bowls, with 1-2 leaves of green lettuce on the bottom and the salad on top. Serve the appetizer at room temperature. Don’t chill it, or you will lose the wonderful delicate aroma of the vegetables and fried eggplant.

Calories and macros

175 kcal

Serving ≈ 350 g

Protein3 g8% of kcal
Fat11 g62% of kcal
Carbs12 g29% of kcal

100 g49 kcalProtein 1 gFat 3.1 gCarbs 3.3 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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