Grilled Vegetable Salad
This recipe came about as so many of mine often do – out of running late and laziness.Before I learned better I used to throw dinner parties that would consist of complicated time consuming food preparations and while the food was great, I was too stressed out to enjoy my guests.
Now when I entertain I keep it much simpler. I love dishes where I can get a lot of prep work done ahead and the more people I have over, the simpler the preparations become.
This Grilled Vegetable Salad started out life as a side dish I made for a dinner party for 20. I had grilled up tons of eggplant slices, layered grilled peppers, onions, arugula and goat cheese on to each slice, rolled them up and tied them with blanched chives the sprinkled on toasted pine nuts. They were delicious but they took me hours to make and were consumed in minutes. I felt less than satisfied.
As labor intensive as they were I loved them so much I decided to serve them again for an Easter brunch. However with all the egg dying the night before Easter and the egg hunting and Easter baskets that takes place on Easter Morning I was ill prepared when the guests started to arrive. So I made the dish into one big salad instead of individual rolls and viola! This great salad was born. It is a staple for me and my most requested “bring along” dish. You can grill up all the veggies the night before and just put it together quickly. The whole salad can even be assembled ahead because the arugula stands up to being dressed ahead well.
This is the perfect side for a barbeque so if you are looking for a new salad try this!
I like to make a sort of flower arrangement out of the vegetables for a pretty presentation. I put the eggplant slices in concentric circles, place the pepper slices in concentric circles radiating out from the center over the eggplant (like the petals of a sunflower) and mound the onions in the center.
Serves 6 – 8
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Large pinch of sea or kosher salt
3 red, yellow or orange peppers or a combination
1 large Eggplant – sliced into ¼ inch slices
1 large onion, sliced into ¼ inch slices
4 large handfuls of arugula
4 ounces goat cheese
¼ cup pine nutsMix olive oil, balsamic vinegar, oregano, salt and pepper in a small bowl.
Toast pine nuts in a hot, dry skillet until browned – about 2 minutes. Set aside.
Place peppers on a hot grill, over the flame of a gas burner or under a broiler and char them very well, turning to char all sides until the peppers are completely blackened. Place in a bowl and cover with foil or cling wrap and let steam a few minutes to loosen the skins. When cool enough to handle, pull the tops out of the peppers and peel off the skin. Slice the peppers lengthwise and remove the seeds. Slice each pepper into about ½ inch slices lengthwise. Brush pepper slices with olive oil, vinegar mixture.
Brush olive oil vinegar mixture on each slice of eggplant and onions. Over a hot grill or pre-heated grill pan grill the eggplant and onion slices until charred on the outside and soft on the inside. As each slice is done, remove from grill and brush again with the olive oil vinegar mixture.
Toss arugula with the remaining olive oil vinegar mixture and place in a wide salad bowl. Layer on the eggplant slices then the pepper slices then the onions. Crumble goat cheese over the top of the salad. Sprinkle pine nuts over the top.
