As I mentioned in my last post, I let my husband choose this week’s recipes, and he wanted vegetables. The Easy Tuscan Bean Soup I just made was a terrific start, and now we have his second choice: Grilled Eggplant and Spinach Salad. I’m not really a salad person, but I love spinach and eggplant. The fresh herbs and tahini-based dressing all sound good too, so I’m excited about a salad. There’s a first time for everything LOL!
This grilled eggplant and spinach salad makes a wonderfully fresh, healthy, and filling warm weather meal. The eggplant is smoky and delicious, and the smoked paprika in the lemony dressing enhances its flavor even more.
The Ingredients
I’d say I had to buy a little over half of the ingredients for this recipe. Most of that was the produce and fresh herbs, none of which were overly expensive or hard to find. My local grocery store even stocks tahini, and that was the priciest ingredient at around $8. But I now have a good sized jar of tahini left over to use in future recipes. I’m more than okay with that.
The Process
My Grilled Eggplant and Spinach Salad wasn’t difficult to make, but I did hit a snag with my grill. I could hear and smell propane leaking when I opened the tank’s valve. It was turned off quick–I was not about to hit the ignition button. We’ll need to get that fixed ASAP. In the meantime, it’s a good thing I have a grill pan for my stove!
So back inside I went and began heating my grill pan while I did the prep work. I had to fry the eggplant in 2 batches, and each batch took 5-7 minutes per side. The eggplant did char nicely on the outside, but I smoked up the whole downstairs. Ah, the wonders of an open floor plan… And my mistake for using olive oil. I should have stuck with plain old vegetable oil.
Besides the issues with my grill and the indoor smoke, the rest of this recipe went very smoothly. I will warn you that the cooked eggplant is fragile, especially when it’s hot, so be sure to let it cool before you cut it into quarters.
It wasn’t listed as a requirement in the recipe, but I used my mini-prep to blend the dressing. I’ve found it to be the best way to thoroughly blend salad dressing. It breaks up the minced garlic a little more and keeps the oil from separating as fast as whisking.
Even with having to fry my eggplant on the stove in 2 batches, my Grilled Eggplant and Spinach Salad was ready in 35 minutes. It only took 5 minutes more than listed on the recipe. I think that was because I was able to prep the rest of the ingredients while the eggplant cooked. I would not have been able to do that if I had to grill the eggplant outside.
