Tomato, Minas cheese and eggplant salad

Isn’t it wonderful when a recipe exceeds our expectations?? I love it when that happens. This salad is one of those recipes.
When I saw the photo on the book, I thought it would be good. But it turned out to be really, really good.

The dressing plays an amazing part here – and the garlic is the one to blame. I have a friend who loves to cook with garlic and I’m sure he would like this dressing very much.

The only problem for me is that I find garlic a bit hard to digest – so the dressing and I had long conversations throughout the afternoon. We even saw a movie together. :S
I know that roasting garlic is one way of getting rid of this problem but I’m not sure how much it would change the flavor of the dressing.

I adapted the recipe of a Brazilian book and used queijo Minas frescal (Minas cheese) instead of bocconcini – a cookie cutter came in handy for making round slices of cheese.



This is my post for this Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by Pille, of the beautiful Nami-Nami.

Tomato, Minas cheese and eggplant salad

2 eggplants
olive oil
150-200g queijo Minas frescal (or bocconcini)
4 tomatoes

Dressing:
3 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon dried oregano
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Start with the dressing: chop the garlic cloves and place them in a small bowl. Add the oregano, olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix well and set aside.
Wash the eggplants and cut them into 0.5cm slices. Do the same thing with the cheese and the tomatoes.
Heat a grilling pan over medium heat. Brush both sides of each eggplant slice with olive oil and grill (both sides). Set aside.
In a large plate, place the tomato slices, cover with the cheese and finish with the eggplant.
Drizzle with the dressing and serve.

Serves 4

Almost Greek salad

Yep, almost Greek. Because I used a different type of cheese to replace feta – queijo Minas frescal. And I used lime juice in the dressing, instead of red wine vinegar.

The verdict? I had a huge bowl of this salad. HUGE. I mean it – it was all I had for lunch, with a glass of wine. Ok, 2 glasses of wine. :)

I still want to try it with feta, but my Brazilian twist worked so well I’m submitting this salad to this Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by its creator, the lovely Kalyn, of Kalyn’s Kitchen.



Almost Greek salad
adapted from Kitchen: The Best of the Best

4 ripe tomatoes
2 Lebanese (short) cucumbers
1 red onion
175g (1 cup) Kalamata olives
½ teaspoon dried oregano
200g queijo fresco or creamy feta

Dressing:
juice of 1 small lime
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Cut the tomatoes into chunks and arrange on a serving platter.
Thickly cut the cucumbers; cut the onion in paper thin slices. Add to the tomatoes and scatter the olives over the plate. Cut the cheese in thick slices and arrange over the vegetables. Sprinkle the salad with the oregano.
Make the dressing: mix well the ingredients. Drizzle over the salad and serve.

You can present the salad as I did, inspired by one episode of Take Home Chef: mix the vegetables in a bowl, sprinkle with oregano and drizzle with the dressing.
Place amounts of salad on serving plates and top with the slices of cheese. Drizzle once more with the dressing.

Serves: 4 (as a side dish)