Eggplant salad with toasted garlic pita chips

Eggplant salad.

"Salad? B-O-R-I-N-G." Like me, you may be a little tired of the usual leafy green salads. When it comes to salads, I often find myself in a rut. Baby spinach - been there. Arugula - done that. Don't get me wrong, I still find myself eating them, because they are an easy way to get in a lot of veggies, but I needed more inspiration.

That is when the wonderful Mark Bittman came to the rescue. You may have seen his NY Times article on "101 Simple Salads for the Season". Seriously, there are so many possibilities that I had never thought about.

Homemade tzatsiki verus storebought hummus (there's only so much a girl can do).

I found myself drawn to the "simple" mediterranean flavors of #27. Another great thing about these salad recipes - they are only a couple sentences in length. No stressing over minute details! I blackened a whole eggplant in a skillet and finished cooking it in the oven until it began to deflate. While the eggplant was in the oven, I chopped cucumber, tomatoes, and mint. I opened up a can of white cannelini beans and mixed all these together with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and salt. When the eggplant was super soft, I took it out of the oven and removed the charred skin. I chopped up the flesh and tossed it with the other ingredients.

I decided to toast up some pita chips to go with the salad. For the finale, I made my own tzatsiki - a simple mixture of greek yogurt, shredded cucumber, garlic, lemon juice, salt, and a drizzle of olive oil.

What can I say, this salad rocked my tastebuds. The eggplant was sooo smoky. You know that wonderful flavor you get from baba ganoush - finally I get how they do it! The mint added this amazing freshness. The tzasiki gave this extra creaminess in contrast to the acerbic lemon and garlic.

Bottom Line: Try this salad and you won't regret it.