Recipe Alert: Fire-Roasted Eggplant Salad

I love having friends who like to eat as much as I do. Especially when they can cook. One of our favorite couples to hang with had us over recently for a BBQ. Everything was tasty of course, but their Fire-Roasted Eggplant Salad was a major win. It’s a beautiful dish that’s perfect with bread, chips, as a “salad" or can double as a salsa or topping. This recipe is fantastic and so good for you. Roasted vegetables, fresh herbs, salt, pepper and olive oil. Done. Perfect summer food.

*Note: You can sub in any other vegetables that roast well. Zucchini and yellow squash would be nice options. If you like it spicy, try adding roasted poblanos or jalapeños.

Fire-Roasted Eggplant Salad: Yield’s 4-6 servings

1 Eggplant
2 Whole vine tomatoes
1 Lemon, halved (leave skin on)
1 Red bell pepper
1 Red onion, peeled and halved
Handful of parsley, chopped
4 T extra virgin olive oil
Himalayan sea salt & black pepper to taste
1/2 Ripe avocado, chopped or sliced and/or 1/2 cup parmesan, grated (both optional but Clean Karma suggested)

Heat charcoal grill (or campfire!); roast vegetables on the grill as follows: eggplant, red pepper and tomatoes whole; red onion and lemon, cut side down. Turn veggies as needed until all sides blackened. (Note: eggplant will take the longest so may want to start that one 10 minutes before the rest of the veggies go on)

When all veggies blackened and very soft, remove from the fire and let cool. Half the eggplant and filet out the innards leaving only the skin. Discard skin. Rough chop and place in large bowl.

Half and de-seed red bell pepper. Rough chop. You may leave on blackened skin if you wish. Add to bowl.

Rough chop red onion, tomatoes and parsley and add to bowl.

Mix together with 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and black pepper to taste. Season well! Squeeze juice of lemon halves (cut sides up to keep seeds from falling in!) and mix.

Top with avocado and/or grated parmesan cheese. Serve with chips as a super chunky salsa, with crusty Italian loaf as bruschetta or as a topping for burgers and grilled meats. Will stand alone well as a veggie side dish too!

As an additional side note: This is a PERFECT dish to whip up today or tomorrow for the long holiday weekend. Happy 4th all!