Grilled Eggplant Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette is the perfect side dish or appetizer recipe to serve at your next picnic!
Eggplant is brushed with olive oil and seasoned simply with salt and black pepper. It then cooks on a hot grill or grill pan until charred on both sides. Drizzle with a mustard vinaigrette that contains whole grain mustard, dijon mustard and white wine vinegar. Sprinkle the eggplant with some micro greens for some freshness and the result is a fresh and delicious way to highlight a great summer vegetable!
Oh Sunday, how I adore you so. How has everyone’s weekend been? Zach and I are getting settled into our new town, which just happens to fall around the same time that the biggest festival this small Wyoming town has to offer occurs. This is a place that is crawling with cowboys. Like, real-life cowboys. The boots, the buckles, the hats…It’s the norm, and I’m in love with it. We checked out the farmer’s market on Friday, which I must say was very impressive! Who knew you had so many local delicacies in this part of the country?! Most of these products were meat-related: elk, beef, lamb, you name it…they had it. Also, the honey…oh my, the honey. Oh, and the goat’s cheese! I’ll stop now. I’m sorry.
Oh wait, one more thing. This small town even has the best food market co-op I’ve ever seen in my life, and because this town literally only has a Safeway and any other major grocery store is about an hour’s drive, this makes me very excited! They literally had everything you could ever want. I could live in this store you guys. Ok, now I’ll stop. Am I the only one that gets excited about small town, family-owned grocery stores that sell only local, all-natural and organic products?!
Anyway, Saturday we experienced our first small town brew fest, which was ALSO quite impressive. Wyoming has some pretty delicious brews you guys. Both Saturday and Sunday were spent getting acclimated to running at a much higher elevation than we ran when we lived in the Denver/Fort Collins area. I am a pretty regular runner, and I have been seriously struggling. Not to mention that the growing season occurs a little bit later here so literally EVERYTHING is blooming. It has not been a very successful couple of days running the trails, but hopefully we get used to it!
The best part of this weekend is completely devoted to this grilled eggplant salad with mustard vinaigrette, however. I made this dish before we moved out of our home in Colorado, when we had access to a grill. So excuse me while I salivate and cry just a little because I won’t have access to a grill until the end of August. *sad face*
I absolutely love eggplant, and I think it doesn’t get nearly enough love. I know many people who don’t like it, but there are so many ways to prepare it that works! This recipe is one of my favorite ways to prepare it. It’s simply seasoned with salt and black pepper and grilled until charred (I love that char). Drizzled with a perfect mustard vinaigrette because you guys know how obsessed I am with mustard and sprinkled with fresh micro greens, this grilled eggplant salad is a must-make this summer. Make it!
Recipe for this grilled eggplant salad is below! Pair it with a summery and light farmhouse ale. It’s a match made in heaven! Talk to you guys tomorrow! xo
Grilled Eggplant Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette
Servings:
4Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 2 medium-sized eggplant top removed and sliced lengthwise
- salt and black pepper
- 3 tablespoons whole grain mustard
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil plus extra for brushing
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
- 1/4 cup micro greens
Instructions
- Preheat a grill or grill pan over medium-hight heat. Brush the eggplant slices with olive oil on both sides. Season generously with salt and black pepper. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the whole grain mustard, white wine vinegar, dijon mustard and a dash of salt and black pepper until combined. Whisk in the olive oil until fully incorporated and then stir in the fresh parsley and thyme. Adjust seasoning to taste. Set aside.
- When your grill or grill pan is hot, add the eggplant and grill for about 5 minutes before flipping and grilling for an additional 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Drizzle the eggplant with the mustard vinaigrette and garnish with fresh micro greens. Enjoy immediately!
35 Responses
This looks fabulous! Loving the mustard vinaigrette, pinning!
Thanks so much, Medha!
I adore eggplants in any form, unfortunatelly I am the only one in my family. The German blood my husband and kids have won’t permite them to like something so unusual like eggplants. Unusual for Germany I mean, where I grew up eggplants are probably just as usual as tomatoes. But I won’t give up, I cook eggplants regularly and maybe one day they will see reason :) And you’re so lucky to have a farmer’s market where you live, I miss that so much, our local “farmer’s market” takes place once week for a couple of hours, has about 6 stands and prices 5 times as high as a normal store.
HAHA! I hope they see reason to Adina! … for everyone’s sake! Thank you so much! :)
This sounds absolutely delicious, Justine1 I’ve never had an eggplant salad before, so I’m loving that this is made on the grill!
Thanks pretty lady!
I was just mentioning on another blog how I love eggplant but it seems to be the burden of veggies according to others. I cannot wait to give that vinaigrette a try for a nice change!
I hate how it’s seen as the “burden!” Ugh! Thanks so much Kacey! :)
Who would have thought. This sounds like a dream come true.
Haha, thanks Ginny! <3
I hope your move went smoothly and your loving your new town! I wish we could all have a little BBQ together…and you could make this delicious eggplant! I know we would devour it :)
Yes..please let us have a BBQ! KC isn’t too far!
I’ve never much cared for eggplant myself, but I’ve never tried it grilled. I will have to do that because you made it look pretty amazing here! Good luck with the running – that’s so frustrating when it’s not working out, but I’m sure you’ll get used to the elevation and it’ll be good again soon!
Thanks girl! You’re the best!
Justine, this looks amazing! I’ve never actually had eggplant before (I know!) but this is totally the way I want to try it!
You need to try it, Michelle! Thanks girl!
This looks absolutely awesome! I just bought an eggplant….I guess I know what I’ll be doing with it!
I know exactly what you need to do with it! ;) Thanks Cathy!
Gorgeous as always, Justine. I have to confess that eggplant isn’t my favorite vegetable, but I’d just sub in something else like zucchini maybe. That vinaigrette looks so good!!
I think zucchini would be the PERFECT substitution. Thanks, Andi! <3 <3 <3
I love the look of your site! And this recipe is delicious. I’ve included the link in my most recent Weekly Meal Plan: http://thecheerfulkitchen.com/archives/857#.V-WPzLUWGRs I hope many of my readers give it a try!