An Inspired Cook

This year one of my goals is to try to incorporate more vegetables into our diet.  Over the summer I found that I could get the guys to eat more veggies by roasting or grilling them.  The key was to season or pair them with a pesto or sauce to make the flavors more appealing.  Some years ago we had a Turkish roasted eggplant dip that everyone enjoyed, but no one can seem to remember what it was called other than it had eggplant, chiles and tomatoes.  When I started researching it the first thing that came up was Baba Ghanouj which clearly wasn’t what we had in mind.  Josh thought it might be Ezme but it is described as a tomato and pepper salad or condiment.  So in the end, I made up a roasted eggplant salsa with chiles, tomato and garlic.  It didn’t taste the same as the Turkish dip we remembered but it was very good with pita chips. Also try it with some flatbread and grilled chicken, it is fantastic!

You’ll need 1 eggplant, 2 chiles of choice, 1 pint of cherry or grape tomatoes, 2 – 3 cloves garlic and a spritz of lemon.

I roasted the chiles over the open flame of my gas stove but they can be roasted in the oven as well.  Just turn on the broiler setting to the highest temperature and roast turning often until they have blistered on all sides.

Place the chiles in a plastic bag to steam for at least 20 minutes.   Once they have steamed, the skin will easily rinse off under running water.

I took 3 cloves of garlic with the skin on and drizzled with olive oil and placed in a sheet of aluminum foil.

Heat an oven or toaster oven to 400 degrees.  Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and place on a broiling tray.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.  I had some fresh parsley and chopped a little to throw over top.  Place the garlic packet over to the side with the tomatoes.  Set in the oven to bake 10 minutes.

While the chiles are sweating it out and the tomatoes and garlic in the oven it’s time to get started on the eggplant.  Cut off the ends and slice the eggplant lengthwise.

Drizzle olive oil over the eggplant slices and place on a hot griddle.

Grill approximately 6 – 8 minutes on each side.

Once all your veggies are ready, chop the eggplant and chiles.  Remove the skin and smash the roasted garlic.

Assemble veggies in a bowl and spritz with lemon juice.  Salt to taste.  If you’ve salted your veggies along the way you may not need any additional salt.

Mix the warm veggies together and serve with pita chips.





Roasted Eggplant Salsa

1 Eggplant
2 Anaheim Chiles
1 pint Cherry or Grape Tomatoes, halved
3 cloves Garlic, roasted
Lemon wedge
Salt to taste

Roast the chiles over an open flame or in the oven under the highest broiler setting.  Once the chiles are charred on all sides, place in a plastic bag to steam for 20 minutes.  Once the chiles have steamed they will easily peel under running water.  Peel, stem and seed chiles.

Cut the tomatoes in half and place on a broiler pan.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.   Place the garlic cloves in aluminum foil.  Drizzle with olive oil and crumple the foil around the garlic to seal.   Place both tomatoes and garlic in a preheated 400 degree oven for 10 minutes.

Cut off the ends and slice the eggplant lengthwise into 1/4 inch slices.  Drizzle with olive oil and place slices on a hot grill for 6 to 8 minutes on each side.

Chop the eggplant and roasted chiles.  Remove the outer peel and smash the garlic.  Place all the veggies in a bowl and gently stir.  Spritz with lemon juice and salt to taste.