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Roasted Eggplant Salad with Smashed Cucumbers and Chicken

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This chilled roasted eggplant salad pairs crunchy smashed cucumbers with savory roast eggplant, shredded chicken & a bright rice vinegar dressing. This is a perfectly refreshing meal for the dog days of summer.

Ingredients

Scale

For the eggplant:

  • 1 pound eggplant, preferably Asian eggplant, but globe eggplant will work well too. 
  • Olive oil
  • Kosher salt

For the cucumber:

  • 1 pound Persian cucumbers, about 10 depending on size
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1 pinch sugar

For the chicken: 

  • 2 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
  • 2 t black pepper corns, 2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
  • 3 slices ginger, unpeeled and lightly smashed
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce

For the dressing: 

  • 2 T honey
  • 6 T rice vinegar
  • 1 T soy sauce
  • 3 T toasted sesame seed oil
  • 1 T Chinese chili oil
  • 2 T Asian fish sauce
  • 4 garlic cloves, finely minced or grated
  • 2” piece of fresh ginger, peeled and either finely minced or grated
  • Black pepper to taste

For the salad:

  • 1 red pepper, seeded and julienned
  • 5 green onions, thinly sliced, both green and white parts
  • 1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
  • 1 handful chopped cilantro
  • Red pepper flakes to taste

Optional:

  • Serve on a bed of baby spinach or toss spinach in with the salad.
  • Add cold, cooked rice noodles.
  • Garnish with crispy shallots or onions (available in Asian super markets and on Amazon)
  • Garnish with chopped roasted, salted peanuts

 

Instructions

For the eggplant: 

  1. Heat oven to 425 degrees F. If using Asian eggplant slice in half lengthwise. If using globe artichoke slice in quarters lengthwise. Lay a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet. Using your hands generously coat the eggplant with olive oil. Work quickly to coat the eggplant as it will rapidly absorb the oil. Season with kosher salt and lay eggplant cut-side down on the parchment. Roast until tender, about 20 – 30 minutes. If you are using quartered globe eggplant, turn after about 15 minutes so that both cut-sides have a turn cooking on the pan. Remove and allow to cool, about 15 minutes.
  2. Peel the skin away with your fingers and discard. Cut the eggplant lengths in half and shred with your fingers. Eggplant shreds will be moist and fragile. Don’t worry! Store in the fridge until you are ready to toss the salad.

For the cucumber:

  1. Trim ends off cucumbers and slice in half lengthwise. Use a small spoon to remove the seeds. Cut each cucumber half into 2″ pieces. 
  2. Using the blade of a cleaver or chef’s knife, press down on each piece of cucumber to split the skin. Smashing down two or three times for each piece and rocking your hand back and forth to break down the cucumber.
  3. Put cucumber pieces in a colander in the sink and toss with a generous pinch of salt and sugar. Fill a plastic bag with ice and lay the bag on top of the cucumbers, allowing them to drain for about 15 minutes. Remove the ice bag, shake off any excess water and store the smashed cucumbers in fridge until you are ready to toss the salad.

For the chicken: 

  1. Place two chicken breasts in the bottom of a lidded skillet or sauté pan. Pan should be deep enough to just cover the chicken with water. Add black pepper corns, ginger slices, and soy sauce. Place pan on the stove and pour in enough water to just cover the chicken.
  2. Bring the water to a boil, flip the breasts over, reduce the heat to low and cover with a lid. Set time to 5 minutes. Remove chicken breasts from the pan and check internal temperature in thickest part of the breast. Your goal is 155 – 160 degrees, chicken will continue to cook after you remove it from the pan to reach the safe temperature of 165 degrees. If chicken is less than 155 degrees, return it to the pan and continue checking every few minutes until desired 155 degrees or more is achieved. Remove chicken from the pan and allow to cool. Note: The higher the temperature above 165, the dryer and tougher the chicken will be. 
  3. Once cool enough to handle, slice breasts in half across the width of the chicken and against the grain and shred into bite-sized pieces. Set aside until you are ready to toss the salad.

For the dressing: 

  1. Mix dressing in a bowl large enough to hold the cucumbers, eggplant and chicken. Whisk together honey, rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame seed oil, chili oil, fish sauce, garlic and ginger. Season with black pepper.

For the salad: 

  1. Add torn eggplant, smashed cucumber, shredded chicken, julienned red pepper, green onion, sesame seeds, cilantro and red pepper flakes. Toss until everything is well coated. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve. Can be made one day in advance.

 

 

 

Notes

Serving suggestions and garnishes:

This is a very flexible salad. You can eat it as is or serve over a bed of spinach, or add some cold rice noodles. Additional garnishes include crispy shallots or onions and chopped salted roasted peanuts. 

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