This grilled eggplant salad with cucumbers, fresh salad greens, and a creamy tahini and yogurt dressing for the salad is a delicious side to any meal. Add some proteins like grilled tofu and grains like quinoa or millet to make it a complete meal.
Most of us know that we need to incorporate foods of different colours into our diet. Salads are a great way to fill your plate with the colours of the rainbow!
With slightly cooler temperatures now, we have many fresh salad ingredients – greens as well as veggies growing on the farm. While we have been enjoying different salads at home as meals or side dishes, many of our customers have been asking for salad-making tips.
“So many times, I don’t know what to make as a salad. I simply end up with sliced cucumber, carrot and tomatoes with lime and salt as dressing. Can you share some ideas?”
So we recently organised a live salad-making session and lunch at our office. If you know the ingredients, you can look for many different recipes to make with them. Our intention with the session was to not only have a live demonstration of different salads that can be made with ingredients easily available in Udaipur but also share tips to easily create many more. We covered 5 salads and 3 different types of salad dressings during the session and we shared tips that would help make many different salad recipes and dressing combinations.
The trick for tasty, wholesome and healthy salads is fresh ingredients. For this eggplant salad, we harvested the eggplants and the salad greens just about an hour before the session. One of our endeavours with all our farm events is to provide the experience of freshly harvested, organic produce. So that everyone has the chance to experience the difference between farm-fresh produce and supermarket produce!
Grilled Eggplant Salad with Tahini and Yogurt Dressing
Ingredients (1cup = 240ml; 1tbsp = 15ml; 1tsp = 5ml)
- 4 medium eggplant
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp sea salt
- chilli flakes to taste
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 150 g salad greens
- 1 cup cucumber diced
- 1 cup feta cheese optional
For the tahini yogurt salad dressing
- 1 cup Yogurt
- 2 tsp tahini
- 1/2 lemon zest
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 clove crushed garlic
- sea salt to taste
Instructions
- For the dressing, add all the dressing ingredients to a glass jar. Stir with a spoon or a small whisk until well combined. Add some water if the tahini is very thick. Keep aside.
- Slice eggplant into thin slices then drizzle with olive oil and season with salt.
- Pan grill over medium-high heat until golden brown on both sides (approximately 2-3 minutes per side).
- Remove from the heat and place in a bowl. Tear the salad greens gently and add to the bowl.
- Add sliced cucumber and chunks of feta (if using).
- Pour over the dressing. Sprinkle oregano and chilli flakes. Mix gently. Taste and adjust seasoning to taste.
- Allow to marinate for 10-15 minutes.
- Serve at room temperature or refrigerate until ready to serve.
The Tahini and Yogurt dressing used for this eggplant salad was a delicious surprise for most. It comes from Middle Eastern cuisine and is common to many Arabic dishes apart from salads. It is also a good marinade. During the session, most participants felt the dressing would pair well with many Indian dishes as well. Like with paranthas or biryani where we typically serve a raita.
If you try this recipe, do let me know how it went and how else will you use this delicious tahini yogurt salad dressing.
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