Aubergine and Red Pepper Salad
Published in Salads
This is a brilliant salad with any North African meat or fish, and is also a wonderful addition to any mezze (tapas) platter, served with flat bread of some sort for scooping it up.
Ingredients:
- 3 large aubergines
- 3 largish red peppers
- 1 garlic clove, crushed with salt
- good squeeze of lemon juice
- 2 tbl extra-virgin olive oil
- 200 g Greek yoghurt, thinned, salted
- 75 g butter, caramelized
- salt
- pepper, freshly ground
Preparation:
- Grill the red peppers, cool under plastic, or in a plastic bag, peel and chop.
- Bake the aubergines at 200°-220° C for about 45 minutes, turning as needed, until soft. Rest briefly, then peel and chop the flesh roughly.
- Add the garlic, lemon juice and olive oil, with seasoning to taste.
- Spread out onto a plate, and sprinkle the chopped peppers on top.
- Pour the yoghurt over one side of the salad, and top it with the caramelized butter.
- Sprinkle with a very little chopped dhania, if desired, and serve slightly warm or at room temperature.
Notes:
- If the yoghurt is very thick, thin it slightly with the addition of 1-2 tablespoons of milk
- Caramelize butter by melting it over very low heat. Continue to cook until it turns a light golden brown, then remove from heat.
- You could bake the peppers at the same time as the aubergines on a separate baking tray, but grilling them does seem to give a nicer, slightly smoky flavour.
- Be careful not to make this too brown, as it burns easily. This combination of yoghurt and caramelized butter is often found in Turkish cooking, and is truly a magical combination.
Serves 4 – 6.
