Recipe - Roast Aubergine Salad

I made this salad for people to try on the recent Diabetes Day at The Chirohealth Clinic in Scunthorpe as it can be used as an accompaniment to a meal or a dip for vegetables or flax crackers. It’s really easy to make, keeps well in the fridge and pretty low carb too although don’t eat loads of it at one sitting if you’re currently reversing your type 2 diabetes.

Ingredients

3 aubergines
3 spring onions
3 or 4 ripe soft tomatoes
1 clove of garlic (optional)
A large handful of chopped fresh coriander
Extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. Prick each aubergine a couple of times with a sharp knife and place whole under a hot grill. (Pricking them stops them bursting) Turn occasionally but not as often as you might first expect. You need to wait for the side that you’re grilling to be quite charred and for the flesh inside to have gone very soft.

2. Once you’ve charred them on all sides and they look saggy and soft, put them to one side to cool.

3. Chop the corriander, spring onions and garlic if you’re using it and place in a large mixing bowl. Dice the tomatoes quite small and add them too.

4. Cut the cooled aubergines lengthways and using a metal spoon, scrape out all of the cooked flesh from the two halves. Get as close to the inside of the skin as you can as that’s where the smokey flavour lives, but avoid getting any of the skin with the flesh. Don’t be alarmed if it looks less than appetising at this point!

5. Chop the aubergine flesh with a sharp knife until it resembles a pulp on your board, then add it to the bowl with all the other ingredients. Finally add the olive oil. I never measure anything when I cook but you will need quite a lot of olive oil, say about a tea cup full. Mix it all together and it’s ready to serve. I like it best when it’s at this stage, still luke warm but it keeps really well covered in the fridge if you prefer.

If you’d like more or less onion or garlic etc then play around with the quantities to suit your own tastes.

Spencer