Warm salad of bok choy, roasted eggplant and tomatoes

This salad can be adapted to pretty much anything you’ve got in your garden, fridge or pantry! You can add cheese, or a boiled egg or two, a tin of tuna or some roast chicken…

Fresh from the garden: eggplant, bok choy, tomatoes, basil,
Recipe source: Melissa
Serves: 4 or 24 tastes

 What to do:

To prepare the veggies:

1. Preheat your oven to 180C.
2. Wash and dry the eggplant. Trim the top end off and cut into thin slices. Cover a baking tray with baking paper and place the eggplant slices on top. Brush with a little olive oil, then slide into the oven and roast for 10 minutes until lightly browned.
3. While the eggplant is roasting, juice the lemon, peel the garlic and wash the basil, picking the leaves and spin-drying them. Combine together the lemon juice, a pinch of salt, a grind of pepper, ¼ cup olive oil, garlic and most of the basil (reserving a few leaves for garnish) in a stick blender cup and whizz until totally smooth. Take the eggplant out of the oven and flip over. Brush the basil mixture over top and bake again for another 5 minutes or until cooked through and browning.
4. Wash the bok choy, opening up the leaves slightly to dislodge any dirt, and shake dry over the sink. Slice the bok choy lengthways down the middle, and again into quarters. Heat the wok over a medium flame and pour about a tablespoon of olive oil in, and then the bok choy with a pinch of salt and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Cook for a few minutes until the leaves have wilted and the bulb part is beginning to blacken slightly.
5. Wash the tomatoes, remove the stalks and slice – or if small, gently cut in half.

To assemble the salad:

6. Remove the eggplant from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes.
7. Divide the cooked bok choy into serving bowls, and then scatter the eggplant pieces on top, and then the tomatoes. Open the packet of goats’ cheese and sprinkle blobs over the veggies.
8. Drizzle over a little olive oil and balsamic with a pinch of salt and black pepper, and scatter over basil leaves torn into small pieces.

Notes: What is balsamic vinegar? Can you eat raw eggplant? What family does eggplant belong to?