Carefree Cooking

House Salad with Eggplant Crouton

It is good to keep some salad veggies in the fridge for quick meal preparation. I usually get a big box of the organic vegetables that are already pre-cleaned. This is a very good time saver and well worth the slight premium. A salad can act as a main course or as a side dish. Personally I prefer salad as a side dish. Adding dressing to the regular veggies seems a little dull. To make the salad more tantalizing, something very unique and exotic should be included.

I had some leftover eggplant from my spicy eggplant dish. So I thought I should somehow combine the two. Perhaps use the eggplant as a garnish or some sort of crouton. Good idea? I think so. To create the texture of crouton, I had to slice the eggplant thinly so that each slice becomes crispy in a short amount of time. I laid all the slices on a baking dish and drizzled some good olive oil on the eggplant. It's important to use good oil for this since the eggplant will absorb all the oil that you put in. So it's better to use a healthier variety. I also sprinkled some salt and pepper to give the eggplant a more acceptable taste (especially to the non-eggplant lovers out there). It is important for each slice of the eggplant to have a little bit of oil and adequate salt and pepper to get the desired taste. I just use my hand to mix them all up. To make sure all slices are evenly baked, they need to be spread out so that there are no overlaps. Bake until the slices are crispy.

The taste of the crispy eggplant adds a unique flavour to the salad. Make sure you put enough on the plate as you would want every bite to have that crispy texture. For this dish, I got two thumbs up (from my wife and my sister) so I'm sure you will enjoy it too.

posted by carefreecooking @ 8:20 PM