A trip to Italy inspired this delicious, 10-ingredient eggplant salad recipe. With roasted tomatoes & fresh basil, it’s a quintessential summer dish.
Reading: eggplant main dish vegetarian
Eggplant Salad Recipe Variations
This eggplant salad recipe came together even more easily than I expected, with no fancy dressing or cheese required! I cooked my eggplant simply in a pan with garlic and chickpeas and tossed it with farro, arugula, basil, and pine nuts.
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The bright tangy flavor in this salad comes from roasting the tomatoes until they’re shriveled up and lightly dry and brown around the outside. Their concentrated sweet flavor is what makes this, although you could also chop up sun-dried tomatoes in a pinch.
I love this eggplant salad prepared as written, but if you want to change it up, here are a few suggestions:
- For extra crunch, roast the chickpeas instead of sautéing them.
- Top everything with shaved Parmesan or crumbled feta cheese.
- Add zucchini or summer squash to the pan with the eggplant.
- Toss in some diced roasted red peppers.
- Sprinkle some chopped parsley leaves in along with the basil.
- Substitute quinoa for farro to make this salad gluten-free.
Let me know what variations you try!
Eggplant Salad Serving Suggestions
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Serve this salad on its own or as part of a larger summer dinner. The best part about it is that it keeps well. You can meal prep it for lunch and store it in the fridge, or make it ahead for dinner and serve it at room temperature. I even ate my leftovers for breakfast with a fried egg on top – which is not the Italian way, but it was so delicious that I recommend you try it anyway.
If you want ideas for what to serve with eggplant salad, try it as a side with veggie burgers, black bean burgers, or portobello burgers. You could also treat it as the main course alongside gazpacho, watermelon gazpacho, or corn on the cob. I highly recommend chocolate zucchini cake for dessert!
If you love this eggplant salad recipe…
Try some of my other favorite summer salads like this pasta salad, this broccoli salad, this couscous salad, or this watermelon salad next!
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