Smoked Eggplant, Radish and Herb Salad
Eggplant or aubergine is one of my favorite fruit to work with. Yes, fruit. Countries in the Mediterranean, levant, middle east and asia are so adept at making brilliant dishes with eggplant. A few simple techniques for preparing, lend themselves to a variety of salads, mezze and entrees that have so much flavor, you might not even want to eat any meat.
This wonderful eggplant salad uses babaganoush as a base and you can in fact serve it simply as a dip or appetizer with bread, fresh vegetables, or crackers. Here, I add some fresh herbs and radishes to make the dish into more of substantial salad that can be eaten with other mezze or platters of food.
*Healthy Gut, Flat Stomach Author and RD Danielle Capalino asked me to design a menu and recipes for her book launch party using ingredients that were low FODMAP, and this eggplant salad was one of them.
Serving Size: Serves 8-10
Ingredients
6 large, firm Italian eggplant
2-3 juicy lemons
¼ cup raw tahini
Fine sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Beautiful olive oil, for drizzling
Radishes, optional
Black sesame seeds, optional
Picked fresh herbs such as mint, parsley, cilantro, optional
Instructions
Preheat the broil. Line a sheet tray with foil. Prick the eggplants with a fork all over.
Bake the eggplant in the middle of the oven until the skin is black, papery and there is steam coming out of the holes, about 45 minutes. The flesh of the eggplant under the skin will be tender and likely have separated from the top of the eggplant when pressed lightly.
Squeeze two lemons into a stainless steel bowl.
Remove eggplant from the oven and, working one by one to prevent oxidation, immediately make lengthwise incision down the center. Scoop out the flesh and place directly in the lemon juice. Repeat with each eggplant, stirring the mixture in the lemon juice each time.
Pour off the excess liquid, add the tahini and stir well. Season with salt and pepper to taste and place a piece of plastic wrap over the top of the eggplant. Allow to cool down and chill in the fridge for up to 3 days. Before serving, season with additional lemon juice and salt to taste.
To serve, spread onto a large platter. Drizzle with olive oil. Garnish with sesame seeds, radishes thinly sliced on a mandoline, and fresh herbs such as mint, parsley and cilantro.