The BEST Roasted Eggplant Salad

Even if you do not particularly like eating salad, this roasted eggplant salad might change your mind! This roasted eggplant salad is so delicious, think roasted eggplants, crunchy croutons, juicy tomatoes and a slight tang from the balsamic vinegar.

I highly recommend that you take the time to roast your eggplants, as there isn’t any other way to get eggplants this perfect. You get the caramalised skins but yet soft and plump eggplant flesh.

Recipe

Servings: Makes for 2 pax

Cooking Time: 30 mins / Prep Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

1 large Eggplant
100g of Cherry tomatoes (halved)
1 packet/120g of Salad leaves of choice (I used Arugula here)
Bread for Croutons (I used Baguette here)
1 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
2 tbsp Olive Oil
Drizzle of Honey
1/2 tsp of Salt
Grated parmesan cheese

Steps:

Preheat your oven to 200°C/ 390°F.
Dice up eggplant into large chunks. (about 2 inch cube size)
- Tip: Careful not to dice the eggplants up any smaller than that, as they will shrivel up from baking under high temperatures.
Transfer diced eggplants into a bowl, drizzle 1 tbsp of olive oil and salt over the eggplants and mix well.
- Tip: Spread out the eggplants, and ensure that all sides of the eggplant are well coated with olive oil, as it would prevent the eggplants from sticking to the baking paper when baking.
Place a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray, and lay eggplant chunks onto the baking tray, skin side up. (This helps to make the eggplant charred on the outside and soft on the inside)
Place the baking tray in the oven, at the center rack for 20 mins.
After 20 mins, remove the baking tray from the oven and flip the eggplants to now flesh side up. Add the croutons to the tray and return to baking for an additional 5 mins.
Remove eggplants & croutons from the oven and let it cool for 5 mins.
- Tip: This helps to prevent your salad leaves from wilting from heat from the eggplants.
Back in the same bowl, toss in eggplants, croutons, cherry tomatoes, and rocket leaves. Drizzle balsamic vinegar and honey and toss everything together.
Garnish with some grated parmesan and voila!