Roasted Eggplant Salad

Here is a delicious Roasted Eggplant Salad with chickpeas, parsley and feta mixed in. It has a rich and savory lemon and roasted garlic dressing. Enjoy it as a Mediterranean style entree salad or side dish. It is also gluten free and vegetarian.

I originally published this recipe on April 18, 2014. I have updated the images and text today to share it with you.

Why We Love This Recipe

This Roasted Eggplant Salad is a a great meatless main course or it can be served as a side salad to accompany garlic herb grilled chicken or Za’atar Spice Chicken burgers. You could also use it as part of a Meze menu with your favorite Mediterranean appetizers and shared plates.

This recipe is a great way to use eggplant in your menu. It can be served warm, room temperature or cold, so it is great for make ahead meals or to serve at a potluck party or picnic in the summertime.

Ingredient Notes For This Recipe

Eggplant

This recipe is all about the Roasted eggplant! The silky texture of it once it is roasted is luscious. I like to leave the skins on my eggplant, because i love the texture of it. But if you prefer a smoother consistency, peel the eggplant before cutting and roasting it.

Garlic

We used four cloves of garlic to make this recipe. We wanted to make this salad garlicky but not overpowering, so the garlic is roasted. This will mellow the flavors! So while four cloves sounds like a lot, you will be surprised how mellow and sweet the garlic tastes.

Parsley

You can use either curly or flat leaf parsley. Wash it well and then spin it dry. Remove the stems and chop it only roughly so that there are still nice big leaves.

Lemon

Because this is a Mediterranean inspired recipe I wanted to use lemon, which is sometimes paired with eggplant in that region. It adds bright flavor without asserting too much favoring to compete with the other tastes.

Dijon

This is added to help emulsify the dressing and to also add a spicy backbone to the dressing. While it is not a traditional accompaniment to roasted eggplant salad, I think it does taste great!

Kosher Salt

Make sure to use kosher salt instead of table salt here. It is lower in sodium than table salt so check out this post on subbing kosher salt for regular salt.

How To Make This Recipe

Step 1: Combine eggplant garlic and ½ teaspoon salt in a large bowl. Drizzle 1 tablespoon oil over it and toss to coat.

Step 2: Spread the eggplant and garlic out on a large rimmed baking sheet. Roast until the eggplant is tender and browned on the bottom and the garlic is soft, about 30 minutes.

Step 3: Remove softened garlic from their papery skins using a fork or tongs and place in a large bowl. Add the remaining ½ teaspoon salt and the remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Mash garlic with a fork.

Step 4: Whisk in lemon juice and Dijon mustard to make the dressing.

Step 5: Mix the eggplant, parsley, and chickpeas into the dressing.

FAQs for This Recipe

Serving Suggestions

These grilled lamb kofta kebabs are a great middle eastern inspired recipe to serve with this recipe.

You could serve this with a variety of appetizers and salads such as this classic Hummus Recipe, Lebanese Potato Salad, Roasted Garlic Hummus or Roasted Red Pepper Hummus or Tabbouleh.

For a cookout, you can serve this with Burgers and other picnic sides such as Panzanella, Vegan Potato Salad or Mediterranean Quinoa Salad.

More Eggplant and Chickpea Recipes

• We’ve combined similar flavors including feta, garlic, chickpeas and eggplant in this recipe for Mediterranean Lavash Wraps.
• This recipe for roasted eggplant with pomegranate molasses is one of my favorites.
• Our Roasted Eggplant and Zucchini recipe is a great one to try because they are both in season at the same time.
• This Classic Ratatouille is a rustic stew featuring the best of the summer.
• This Chickpea and Grilled Corn Salad is a great summer side dish when corn is in season.
• In the cooler months, this hearty vegan Chickpea Stew has North African flavors that are amazing!
• This Chicken and Chickpea Power Salad is bursting with nutrients and protein.
• Our recipe for Israeli Couscous salad has chickpeas, golden raisins, lemon, garlic and cumin.
• This Vegan Chickpea Tuna Salad is made with chickpeas in place of tuna.

The photographs in this post were taken by Aysegul Sanford of Foolproof Living.

Thanks so much for reading. If you are new here you may want to sign up for my free weekly email newsletter or follow me on instagram. If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review! It is very appreciated. Happy Cooking! ~Katie

Print