Recipe: Grilled Eggplant Salad with Saffron Yogurt Dressing

The following was written by Carolyn Weppler, Sales Manager at Goway, who not only travels a lot, but cooks a lot too!

This is a family favourite which was inspired by the Middle-Eastern cuisine of Jordan, Turkey and Israel. It’s a simple, no fooling around dish suitable for lunch or dinner and is great with barbeques or office potlucks.

This dish is not only delicious but healthy too!

• 2-3 medium eggplants cut into ½ inches slices, then cut into fork size pieces
• Olive oil for brushing
• Freshly ground sea salt and black pepper
• ¼ cup – ½ cup pomegranate seeds
• 3 tablespoons of toasted pine nuts
• 20-30 basil leaves

Preheat oven to 400F, brush eggplant with olive oil, salt and pepper. Cook till golden brown, then turn and cook till other side is golden brown (this will take 20-30 mins in total depending on how hot your oven cooks). Take them out, place them in salad bowl, add all other ingredients and pour dressing on top, serve immediately. Can be served hot, warm or cold – all delicious!

Dressing:

• ½ cup greek yogurt (your choice of nonfat vs fat)
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 3 tbsp hot water
• 1 clove of garlic – crushed, chopped or smashed
• 2 tbsp olive oil (or more to taste)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• A few strands of saffron*

* Saffron isn’t in every persons’ home, so if you don’t have it, no worries – the recipe is still delicious. Place the saffron strands in a small amount of hot water and soak while the eggplant is cooking. Then mix all ingredients together and whisk.