Salads with eggplants and tomatoes

Eggplants with fleshy pulp and unique taste are popular with many. They are fried, baked, stewed, harvested for the winter. Vegetable stews, casseroles, and caviar often include this product. Many prepare “blue” rolls for the buffet table, but there are much more options for cold snacks based on them. Not all housewives know that it is possible to prepare salads with eggplants and tomatoes, which are nourishing, savory and beautiful.

Cooking Features

Salads with eggplants and tomatoes are among the most unusual appetizers of seasonal vegetables. The process of their preparation has its own specifics.

Some solanaceous components contain harmful substances that give them bitterness and at the same time a dark blue-violet color. These include eggplant. They need preliminary preparation associated with pulling solanine out of them. Salt works well with this. Eggplants are cut, and if the recipe requires it, they are peeled, then sprinkled with salt or placed in a saline solution (10-20 g of salt per 1 l of water). After 20 minutes, the vegetables are washed to remove excess salt. The bitterness during this time will go away from them.
Eggplants are not made to be eaten raw. Before adding to the salad they are subjected to heat treatment: fried or baked. Before that, they must be dried with a napkin. When baking “blue” in the oven, the baking sheet must be oiled. After frying in a pan, vegetables are laid out on a napkin so that it absorbs excess oil.
If you plan to put eggplants cut into oval or round slices in a salad, they are not recommended to be cleaned before frying or baking, so that they keep their shape better.
When cutting tomatoes for a salad, use a sharp knife so as not to squeeze the juice out of them. Special knives for tomatoes resemble a saw with small and frequent teeth.
Foods that have been heat-treated must be cooled before combining with other ingredients, so that the appetizer does not spoil too quickly. We are not talking about warm salads, which are collected from hot products.
Salting and dressing a salad of tomatoes and eggplants should be immediately before serving to the table. Otherwise, the tomatoes will start up the juice, the eggplants will be sodden, and the appetizer will turn into a shapeless and little appetizing mass.

Recipes for eggplant and tomato salads are not always similar, so the technology for their preparation can also be different. By following the directions in a specific recipe, you will avoid mistakes.

Simple recipe for salad with eggplants, tomatoes and peppers

Composition:

eggplants - 0, 25 kg;
tomatoes - 0, 25 kg;
onions - 100 g;
Bulgarian pepper - 0, 2 kg;
vegetable oil - 60 ml;
table vinegar (9 percent) - 5 ml;
salt, black pepper, fresh parsley - to taste.

Method of preparation:

Small eggplants or one medium-sized vegetable should be washed, blotted with a napkin, cut into slices about half a centimeter thick. Salt them, mix, leave for a quarter of an hour.
Free the onion from the peel, cut it into rings.
Pepper wash, remove the stalk, remove the seeds. Cut the flesh into thin rings.
Rinse the eggplants under running water, dry them with a kitchen towel.
Heat a little oil in a frying pan, fry in it until golden brown onion, put it on a napkin.
Add some oil, fry the eggplants until ready, and put them on a napkin too.
Wash tomatoes, blot. Cut into circles.
Put all the ingredients in a bowl.
Wash, dry parsley from water. When it dries, chop it with a knife and send to the rest of the ingredients.
Mix the remaining oil with vinegar, add salt and ground pepper. Season the snack with the resulting mixture.

Salad made according to this recipe looks bright and appetizing. It can serve as a separate dish or be served instead of a side dish. Appetizer goes well with grilled meats.

Salad with eggplants, tomatoes and eggs

Composition:

eggplants - 0, 3 kg;
chicken egg - 3 pcs .;
onions - 100 g;
tomatoes - 0, 2 kg;
vegetable oil - 40 ml;
sugar - 5 g;
table vinegar (9 percent) - 20 ml;
mayonnaise, salt, spices - to taste.

Method of preparation:

Eggplants wash, peel, cut into small cubes.
In a liter of water, dissolve a tablespoon of salt, dip the eggplant cubes into it, leave for 15 minutes. Rinse well, let dry.
Peel onions, cut into small pieces, put in a bowl.
Mix sugar, vinegar and half a cup of hot boiled water. Pour marinade onion, leave for 10-15 minutes.
Fry eggplants until cooked in hot oil, put on a plate covered with a napkin.
Squeeze the onions, put in a bowl.
Cut the tomatoes into large cubes and place them on the onion.
Cook hard boiled eggs, cool under running cold water. Free from the shell, cut into small cubes, put to chopped vegetables.
Put the eggplants in the bowl with the rest of the ingredients.
Season the salad with mayonnaise and serve.

To enhance the spice of the dish, mayonnaise can be pre-mixed with garlic passed through the press. The salad will look more beautiful if you use quail eggs and cherry tomatoes to make it. These products are cut in half or in 4 parts, the smaller they should not be cut.

Layered eggplant and tomato salad

Composition:

eggplants - 0, 4 kg;
tomatoes - 0, 4 kg;
pitted olives - 100 g;
cucumbers - 0, 2 kg;
processed cheese - 150 g;
garlic - 2 cloves;
chicken egg - 2 pcs .;
mayonnaise - 0, 2 l;
vegetable oil - 20 ml;
salt, pepper - to taste.

Method of preparation:

Cut eggplants into ovals, soak for 15 minutes in salted water, rinse and dry.
Grease a baking sheet with butter, put eggplants on it, send it to an oven preheated to 200 degrees, bake until done.
Wash tomatoes and cucumbers, cut into slices or ovals. It is better to take small tomatoes, so that their slices are no more than eggplants.
Cool-boiled eggs cool, peel, chop on a grater.
Rub the cheese, combine with the eggs.
Squeeze garlic on eggs and cheese.
Add mayonnaise, mix. Get a thick sauce.
Put the cooled eggplants on a dish, thickly grease with the prepared mixture.
Place tomatoes on eggplants, cover them with sauce.
Place cucumbers on top. If the sauce remains, you can cover them with cucumber slices.
Cut the olives in half, decorate them with a snack.

Salad prepared according to this recipe looks festive. It will decorate the table, for whatever reason it was covered. The ease of preparation of this dish allows you to do it on weekdays. The snack is nourishing, it can replace dinner. You can collect it not on a dish, but on separate plates to serve in portions. This snack is often laid out on a platter, giving it a resemblance to a peacock's tail. Then the sauce should cover only the lower layers, otherwise the salad will look less aesthetic.

How to decorate eggplant and tomato salad

Dark eggplants and red tomatoes make up a bright pair, which makes appetizing snacks of them. If you add colors and decorate the salad in a special way, it will be able to decorate the festive table.

Round slices of eggplants, tomatoes, cucumbers and other products that make up the snack, you can not mix, and spread out on a plate, alternating with each other. Then they are watered with sauce and served.
Composition will be even more interesting if the oval pieces of eggplants are spread out on a dish in the shape of a peacock tail, smeared with sauce, put tomatoes on top, cucumbers on them, complete the pyramids with olives. From the round tip of eggplant, olives and lettuce you can make a peacock's head.
Salad will look beautiful if sprinkled with fried sesame, pine nuts, chopped green onions or other greens.
Another simple design option for snacks is putting it on top of lettuce leaves.

The salad with eggplants and tomatoes in cocktail glasses or ice-cream bowls looks good with a portion of serving.

Salads with eggplants and tomatoes are good for cooking in the summer and early autumn when they harvest these vegetables. They are nourishing, but moderately high in calories. Such snacks are pleasant to eat on hot days.