Grilled Eggplant Salad with Walnuts Tweetcipe

I find eggplant to be a pretty but bland tasting vegetable on its own. That’s probably why I don’t use it much in my cooking. However, this week I got the latest Food and Wine magazine in the mail and four eggplants in my CSA basket. I perused the magazine until I found a promising eggplant recipe and gave it a try last night. It was so good, I had to share it, though, as is my custom, I tweaked the recipe a bit. This works well as a side dish or, if you cut the veggies into smaller pieces, as a topping for flat bread or crostini.

Grilled Eggplant Salad with Walnuts
adapted from Food and Wine Magazine, serves 6

Two 1 lb eggplants, sliced lengthwise ½ inch thick
1 large jalapeno
grapeseed oil
¼ cup chopped cilantro
3 T white wine vinegar (I use champagne vinegar)
1 ½ t honey
1 garlic clove, minced
5 roma tomatoes, cut into ½ inch dice
1 small red onion, sliced in ¼ inch rings
2 T chopped toasted walnuts (I used pecans because I was out of walnuts)

Brush the eggplant slices, jalapeno and onion slices with grapeseed oil and season with salt. Grill vegetables over moderate heat and remove vegetables as they get a little charred – about 8-10 minutes total grilling time. Peel and seed jalapeno, then finely chop it. Dice the eggplant and quarter the onion rings.

In a large bowl combine the cilantro, vinegar, honey and garlic. Add all of the vegetables and gently toss. Add salt and cayenne pepper to taste. Garnish with nuts. Serve at room temperature.