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Diet Recipe: Roasted Eggplant & Toasted Seed Salad

Posted by Lynda on February 15th, 2013 (Diet, Healthy Recipes)

A delicious diet recipe for a roast eggplant salad that is packed with flavour and nutrition, from Sydney dietitian Lynda Hamilton.

 

I often make double of this delicious diet recipe for roasted eggplant salad so there is plenty left for lunches the next day.  Or I add cooked cracked wheat or cooked puy lentils to any leftovers for another main meal, for the simple reason it just tastes so good.

Eggplants are in season at the moment, so give it a try.

Ingredients

2 large eggplants

1 red onion, thinly sliced

Salad leaves – your choice

1 handful of toasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds 

Balsamic vinegar

Olive oil

 

Method

Chop the stalks off the eggplants, halve length ways and then cut into 2 cm chunks.  Try to make them roughly the same size so they cook evenly.

Put a double layer of kitchen paper on a clean work top, put the diced eggplant on top and sprinkle with salt.  Top with another layer of kitchen paper and leave for half an hour so they secrete some of their bitter juices.  If you don’t have time to salt and leave them, just continue to the next step.   It will still taste great.

Spread the eggplant out on two baking sheets so they have plenty of room to roast.   If you have a spray olive oil, give the eggplant a light spray and shake the tray.  If you don’t have spray oil, use a desert spoon to literally drip olive oil over the chopped eggplant, and shake the tray.  Eggplants suck up oil like sponges so stick to just under a desert-spoon-full per tray.    Season with freshly ground black pepper and put in a hot preheated oven at 200 degrees.

Roast for 25-35 minutes, until the eggplant is lightly brown and crispy at the edges.  Remove and leave to cool on the baking trays while you prepare the salad.

Put the salad leaves in a big bowl and top with the thinly sliced red onion.  Scatter the cooled roasted eggplant on top, and sprinkle with the toasted seeds.

If this is a main meal and not a side salad, an optional extra depending on your diet, is to finish with a boiled egg (per person) or a small crumbling of feta cheese on top.  I also like to add some chopped herbs such as basil, oregano or thyme, depending on what is in the garden or cupboard.

Make the dressing in a clean jam jar.  Add 2 fingers worth of olive oil in the bottom and top with 1 finger height of balsamic vinegar.  Put on the lid and shake to mix.

A word about salad dressings.  Let everyone drizzle the dressing on to their own plates once they have helped themselves to the salad.  Try and stick to 1 dessert spoon of dressing per a big plate of salad, and a teaspoon of dressing if the salad is a side salad.  Save any left over dressing in the jar to use another day.

Variation: For a middle eastern take on this recipe, scatter cumin seeds over the eggplant before roasting.  Instead of using balsamic vinegar in the dressing, squeeze the juice of 1 lemon into the olive oil and top up with white wine vinegar or cider vinegar until you have the ratio of 2 parts oil to one part vinegar.

Enjoy!

Oh and for those of you who read last week’s post, it turns out the horse meat scandal isn’t just a British affair.  This week the headlines have reported that horse meat has also been sold as beef meat in frozen meals in other European countries including France and Germany.  Read the latest on the BBC News.

By Lynda Hamilton

Lynda Hamilton is an  Accredited Practicing Dietitian and Accredited Nutritionist BSc, BHSc (N&D) at Hamilton Dietetics based in Sydney.  If you would like to speak to a dietitian in Sydney, get in touch with Lynda.  You will also find fact sheets and diet advice videos on her website.

 

 

 

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