Eggplant Salad – Paula Rykine ART192

Eggplant Salad – Paula Rykine ART192

Everyone has some foods that symbolize a home for them. This is my mother’s eggplant salad. The part of soaking and squeezing the eggplant  is my childhood memory and to this day I do it just like my mom.

When we compliment my mother on the excellent eggplants she always says – “Yes, it came out not bad but my aunt’s came out more delicious”. For decades she has been trying to recreate the taste of eggplant her aunt would make – she changes the frying order, she changes the quantities, changes the type of oil and the type of pan but in vain. It doesn’t come out like the aunt’s. There are probably memories of flavors that we will not be able to recover.

In recent years I have experienced the same frustration – making eggplants by all directions and never taste as good as Mom’s. There is only one mother.

The beauty of this recipe is that there is no exact science here. You can play with the ingredients and it always came out delicious. I mix it with prepared rice or quinoa, make it with a hard-boiled egg and tahini sandwich and just eat it with a spoon 🙂

Ingredients:

2 medium eggplant

3 peeled medium carrots cut into quarter slices

4 ripe tomatoes cut into cubes

1 diced purple onion

1 large red pepper cut into cubes

4 tablespoons olive oil / sunflower / canola

A tablespoon of coarse salt

salt

1/2 teaspoon cumin

Preparation:

Cut the eggplant into cubes of 2 x 2 cm put in a bowl and sprinkle over the coarse salt. Stir and set aside for about half an hour.

After half an hour, take a handful of eggplant cubes at a time and squeeze / squeeze the liquid. Repeat until all eggplant is squeezed.

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet and fry the eggplant until lightly golden. Then gradually add the onion, carrots, tomatoes and red pepper. Add salt to taste and cumin.

Continue to cook over medium heat until all vegetables are softened.