It’s amazing how much people like this salad! I used to have people tell me they had been up all night obsessing about it and drove a long way to get some.
Ingredients
- Eggplant, 3 large
- Salt, 1 TB
- Garlic, 3-4 cloves, minced
- Mediterranean pickles, 1-2, rough chopped
- Red onion, 1/4 sliced
- Cilantro, 1/2 bunch, chopped
- Moroccan Eggplant Sauce, 1 cup (see recipe below)
SAUCE
- Tomato paste, 6 oz. can
- Lemon, juice of 1 lemon
- Water, to 1-1/2 cups
- Sea salt, 1/2 tsp.
- Cumin,1 tsp.
- Szeged hot paprika, 1 tsp.
Directions
- Slice and salt eggplant and refrigerate in a covered bowl overnight (quarter the eggplant lengthwise, then cut in 1/8″ slices).
- Thoroughly drain eggplant (you may need to repeat draining before you complete frying process) and squeeze.
- Deep fry until evenly brown (3 min. with eggplant no more than ½ – 1 in. deep in basket).
- Drain in a paper towel-lined bowl, and cool.
- Add fried, cooled eggplant into a bowl alternately with layers of sauce and prepared vegetables, 3-4 layers.
- Fold together lightly. Check seasoning, and re-season if necessary.
Hello. Love these at the restaurant. How do you prepare the sauce…. just stir, heat until tomato paste melts, emulsify, etc? Thank you!
No need to heat – just stir all the sauce ingredients together. Might just need to mash or whisk the tomato paste a little.
My first time on your awesome site! What are Mediterranean pickles? Do they carry them at Whole Foods? Trader Joes?
And what is Szeged hot paprika? It sounds like it might be an ingredient that really makes this dish sing!
I just now where to get these exotic things.
Ana
Ana, I’m so sorry I missed these posts from you. I’ve been in kind of a funk post-election but am getting reenergized and catching up now. The Mediterranean pickles — or maybe they’re Middle Eastern pickles, can’t remember what it says on the can — are the typical Arab or Israeli brands. They are made with Persian pickles (they’re smaller, thinner, straighter and finer texture than our pickling cucumbers) and are basically dill pickles, sometimes spicy. If you can’t find them in a store, you can get them online through Amazon. Osem is an Israeli brand that I often get through Amazon. They also make olives that I like a lot and which I use in my Spicy Olive Salad, which I believe I posted here in my blog. And I get sliced olives from Osem also that I use in lots of things like pasta salad or just because. You can probably also just search on Mediterranean Pickles for other brands (I think it is Mediterranean). I’ve never seen the pickles or the olives at Trader Joe’s and haven’t been to Whole Foods for a long time so not sure about that. The Szeged Hot Paprika is a Hungarian brand — I get it in a few of the supermarkets around here, but I have also ordered it online when it’s scarce. And sometimes I use smoked paprika as well. I always put a little of the hot paprika in everything – more if I actually want it spicy, less if I just want to give it the little zing that makes less salt more flavorful and brings out all the spices. I prefer it to cayenne – it has a more subtle manner, a little sweeter maybe, less of an after-taste. I saw a different brand of the hot paprika in a store the other day — should probably try it, but I’ve used this one for so happily for so many years — used buckets in my cafe — that I haven’t been in a rush to experiment.
Hi Leslie! I worked at your cafe for a few years after you sold it and I just have to say finding your blog is the best thing that’s happened to my stomach sense! Food’s not nearly as good since Laura left so it’s been years since I got my fix 🙁 Since my last day I’ve regretted not writing down this recipe, making a MEP wrap ASAP thank you so much for posting!!!
Maddi, how nice to hear from you! I’m glad you’re enjoying the recipes here! I haven’t written in my blog for a while, but your comment inspired me to think about getting started again! Thank you for getting in touch here.
Hi Leslie! I am not sure if you still check this or not, but I thought I would message anyway. When I worked in Woodstock I would eat at your cafe multiple times a week. These were the days when you first opened. It was my absolute favorite. I live far from Woodstock now, but I still think of my favorites from there often. I am SO happy that you made this blog and included the recipes! Your Moroccan eggplant especially was like heaven to me! I can’t believe I am lucky enough to make it at home myself now. Thank you so much for sharing these. I already printed out this and the red lentil soup. But I will definitely be trying more! It was so kind of you to share your gift with everyone.
Best,
Ashleigh
Thank you Ashleigh! I really appreciate you taking the time to message me here, and it’s great to know someone out there is taking the time to make some of these wonderful foods. I take no credit for them, btw. Israeli friends of mind taught me how to make their amazing foods. I augmented what they taught me with a few other dishes I learned about through research. It was so much fun for me to bring this style of eating to festivals and farmers markets and best of all, to Woodstock.