Grilled Eggplant Salad with Cilantro-Chili Vinaigrette

I am enjoying cooking with the herbs from my garden so much this season that I’ve decided to participate in Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by Cook Almost Anything.

I am really not much of a gardener, with one significant exception. Every year for the last 20 or so, I’ve planted a container herb garden. I have a perfectly clear picture in my head of my first –- on the fire escape of my second floor apartment in an old house on Milan Street in New Orleans. I bought a few galvanized tin washtubs and had a friend drill holes in the bottom so they would drain. I only planted the basics – basil, parsley, and a few other herbs. And those plants went crazy. I have never again grown what I described as “basil trees.” I don’t remember what I did with the bounty. I cooked some in those days, but not nearly enough to put all of those herbs to good use.

These days, I have a grand variety of herbs growing on my deck – three kinds of basil, two kinds each of parsley, sage and thyme, lemon balm, rosemary, lavender, Mexican tarragon and oregano, marjoram, cilantro, and mint. On any given night, I use at least three of my herbs in making dinner. Tonight: basil, parsley and cilantro.

Our grilled barbecue chicken pizza was garnished with cilantro from my garden. We all loved the pizza. I made a rub and barbecue sauce this afternoon since we are grilling baby-backs tomorrow. We thawed a couple of chicken breasts, covered them in the rub, grilled them, and finished them with the barbecue sauce. I loved the the combination of sweet-spicy sauce, smoked Gouda cheese and cilantro. We subbed a whole wheat Boboli crust, and don't think we would bother with grilling the pizza next time.

This grilled eggplant salad with cilantro-chili vinaigrette was the perfect accompaniment to the pizza and a great showcase for my herbs.

Grilled Eggplant Salad with Cilantro-Chili Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

For the dressing:

• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon minced seeded serrano chile
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic

For the salad:

• 12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1 medium eggplant, cut into ½ - inch-thick slices
• ½ teaspoon salt, divided
• Cooking spray
• 1 small red onion, sliced into ½-inch thick slices
• 1/4 cup torn mint leaves
• 1/4 cup torn basil leaves

Directions:

1. Combine first 6 ingredients in a bowl; stir well with a whisk.
2. Preheat the grill.
3. Combine tomatoes, mint and basil in a salad bowl. Set aside.
4. Sprinkle eggplant with 1/8 teaspoon salt.
5. Place eggplant on a grill rack coated with cooking spray; cook 5 minutes on each side or until eggplant is done. Remove eggplant from grill rack and set aside.
6. Sprinkle onion with 1/8 teaspoon salt. Place onion on grill rack coated with cooking spray; cook for 5 minutes on each side or until onion is tender.
7. Cut eggplant into bite-sized pieces.
8. Add eggplant and onion to tomato mixture. Add dressing and toss to coat.

The salad is a Cooking Light recipe to which I made a few changes in quantities. I also tossed the ingredients together rather than making a composed salad. This is such a healthy recipe (no oil! no salt! lots of veggies!) that I’ll be making it regularly this summer. It would be a great accompaniment to a steak or burger. I am also growing peppers so hopefully next time that ingredient will be homegrown as well.