Turkish Aubergine Salad Recipe – Ideal For Summer

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In the UK, we call them aubergines but a more common word for those plump, dark vegetables appears to be eggplant.

However, as translations of the Turkish dish “patlıcan salatası” tend to say aubergine salad on restaurant menus, we’ll go with the flow and stick with that, rather than eggplant salad.

This is a roasted aubergine salad recipe and, along with lots of other meze dishes that you know we love, this is a perfect salad for the hot summer months.

Turkey And Aubergines

Think of any recipe you could create using aubergines and the chances are it’s already an established dish in Turkish cuisine. There’s even an aubergine jam!

Turkey loves its aubergines!

Thankfully, so do we. Fethiye market has piles of them stacked onto the stalls and they’re a regular feature on our shopping list.

So Many Aubergine Dishes

Mmm, we’ll not go through the full list of our aubergine experiments here because we already have a list of our favourite Turkish eggplant recipes.

But Turkish musakka, Ekşili Patlıcan (sour aubergine) and the famous dish from the Ottoman kitchen, Hünkar Beğendi are all favourites.

And, of course, let’s not forget the super tasty stuffed aubergines dishes, karnıyarık and imam bayıldı.

Life in Turkey without aubergines? Unimaginable.

We know aubergine dishes are much loved by our readers, too.

Reader Tip: This roasted aubergine salad recipe is suitable for both vegetarians and vegans.

Roasted Aubergine Salad Recipe

Roasted aubergine salad (közlenmiş patlıcan salatası) is a regular feature of the meze fridge in Turkish restaurants and we always order it.

It’ll taste slightly different in each restaurant; made to the personal taste of the chef.

We love to make our own at home, too, just so we can add little extras to really suit our taste buds.

That’s the beauty of cooking at home, isn’t it?

This recipe is how we make patlıcan salatası. With regards to the ingredients, you can play around with the amounts you use because it’s all about your personal taste.

Roasted Aromas

As well as the fabulous taste of this aubergine salad, the other beauty of preparing this recipe at home is the aroma which will fill your kitchen.

Roasted aubergines and peppers, spitting and sizzling in the oven.

If ever there was a smell to get those tastebuds tempted!

But you’ve got to be patient. You’ve got to let them soften and then you’ve got to let them cool down once they’re out of the oven.

Then you can remove the soft roasted pulp from your aubergines. You can peel away the skin from your sweet, roasted red peppers.

After that, you can go to town with the rest of the ingredients.

Those flavours we were talking about; the ones to suit our taste buds. Pass the vinegar!

Let’s Make Roasted Aubergine Salad

So, your roasted aubergine salad is chilling in the fridge. What comes next?

Well, you can serve it however you like.

For us, we’re going to lightly toast some chunks of bread and place them on the table outside.

Then we’re going to remove the aubergine salad from the fridge and take that outside, too.

Leisurely grazing in the cool shade.

We’ll take a piece of toast and spoon some of the salad on top.

Mmm, silky aubergine salad texture against the hot crunchy toast.

We’ll try our best not to eat the whole lot in one go!

Afiyet Olsun!

• This roasted aubergine salad recipe is in the meze and salad section of our page of recipes from around Turkey.
• If you like a yoghurt-based aubergine salad, try our recipe for Baba Ganoush.

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