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I know, I know, many people don’t like eggplant. I do and wanted to give a different recipe a try other than making the favorite eggplant parmesan recipe, which I have made many times. This salad is subtle with flavor and no ingredient overpowers any other. Even the eggplant and mushrooms pair well together. This salad is perfect by itself and also compliments well with a favorite protein, a nice crusty bread…. Give it a try.
Eggplant Salad with Arugula and Toasted Pine Nuts
Ingredients
- Olive Oil
- 2-3 long Japanese Eggplant, diagonally sliced about ¼ inch
- 1 small Shallot, sliced
- Arugula greens
- 1 English Cucumber, sliced and in half
- 1 cup Mushrooms sliced
- 1/3 cup Pine Nuts
- 1 Avocado, sliced and slices cut in ½ or 1/3
- Parsley and Chives, rough chopped (garnish)
- Parmesan Cheese grated (garnish)
Dressing:
- 2-3 Tbsp Buttermilk or Plain Yogurt (Greek will be too thick)
- 1-2 Tbsp White Wine Vinegar
- ½ tsp Stone Ground Mustard
- ½ Lemon Zested
- 2 tsp Lemon Juice
- Salt and Ground Pepper
- Drizzle of Honey
Directions
- In a large sauté pan, heat on medium high heat and drizzle with oil. A cast iron will be good here. Add the shallots and cook until they begin to slightly crisps up. Remove. Drizzle with a little more oil and cook the mushrooms until they are a golden roasted flavor. Add a little salt. Remove.
- In the same pan, drizzle with a little more oil and add in the sliced eggplant. Seared each side until brown on each side. Add salt. You may need to do this in several batches.
- In a smaller sauté pan, toast the pine nuts until slightly turning brown around the edges.
- Combine all of the ingredients for the dressings and whisk together until thoroughly mixed together. Add more vinegar or yogurt if needed to your desired consistency.
- Assemble the salad. On a big plate or individual plates, add some of the arugula and then the cucumbers, eggplant, mushrooms and shallots. Add the avocado, herbs and parmesan cheese. Drizzle with the dressing and sprinkle a little of the pine nuts on each plate.
Enjoy ☺
