Grilled Eggplant Salad

I've been eating a lot of Asian food lately, so I thought I'd cook something Middle Eastern tonight. I thawed some chicken breasts that have been marinating in chili paste, sun-dried tomato paste and onion. These fillets were seared and finished off with a splash of red wine to simmer. I made some saffron rice to go along with it as well as a grilled eggplant salad. As usual, I didn't have all the ingredients and was too lazy to run to the market, so I substituted flat-leaf parsley with fresh oregano and pita bread with French baguette. The house smelled so nice after everything was done cooking. :)

Ingredients:

• 1 large American eggplant
• 1 large ripe tomato, ½-inch thick slices
  
• 1 onion, ½-inch thick slices
  
• 2 serrano peppers
• 5 big cloves garlic, halved lengthwise
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• ½ tsp smoked paprika
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• Course sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Preheat oven to 450F. Make ten ½-inch slits into eggplant and insert a garlic wedge in each. Drizzle a bit of olive oil and sprinkle some salt and pepper on top. Put on roasting sheet and roast for about 40 minutes, remembering to turn every 10 minutes or so. Eggplant is cooked when the skins have collapsed and the flesh has softened. Halfway through the cooking of the eggplant, place the onion, tomatoes and chili peppers on the same cooking sheet and drizzle with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper.

When all the vegetables are done roasting, remove stem from eggplant and dice up everything and throw in serving bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and toss everything together. Serve hot or chilled with toasted wedges of pita bread.