Roasted Eggplant Salad

I really wanted to make Baba Ghanouj (or baba ghanoush) today but I wasn't in the mood for tahini. So I made up a recipe!

Ingredients:
1 large eggplant
1 beef steak tomato, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
2 sprigs of green onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1.4 cup of finely chopped parsley
olive oil
salt (to taste)
a dash of Sumac spice for decoration
1-2 tsp. Pomegranate Molasses or apple cider vinegar (you can start with 1 and add more if you like it more tangy)

-Preheat oven to 400. Wash and dry eggplant, then poke holes with a knife in it (I did one  or two on each side). Bake eggplant for 40-60 minutes or until the skin starts to brown. Mine took 40 minutes. Let the eggplant cool.
-After the eggplant has cooled, peel off the skin on top with your hands then scoop all the pulp out with a spoon and into a bowl. Try not to mush it too much. I used my kitchen sheers to cut the eggplant into medium/small chunks but I didn't mash it.
-Heat some olive oil in a pan, add the onions and fry until they start to brown. Then add the garlic, and in about a minute you can add the tomato. Once the water from the tomato starts to reduce (in about 5 minutes on medium high heat) add the pepper. Saute until the pepper is a bit tender (about 5 minutes).
-Remove mixture from heat then toss over eggplant. Add parsley, salt, sumac, another drizzle of olive oil and the vinegar or molasses. Toss together gently and enjoy! :)

This salad goes really well with kabobs. 

Blackbean Salad

I'm on a temporary carb-fast. I'm avoiding bread, rice, pasta, grains of all kinds, and sugar. That means no processed foods, nothing with added sugar. I'm doing it to retrain my taste buds not to crave something sweet after every meal, and to cut down on the amounts of carbs that I have every day. I've never been a big carb eater in general but lately I've been having a sandwich for lunch more often than a salad and I knew that had to change. 

I made this salad today next to my roasted chicken dinner. I usually make rice, but today I had salad instead and not only was it delicious but also very satisfying!

Ingredients:

1 cup sweet corn, steamed from frozen organic corn

1 cup cooked black beans (you can also used canned, choose cans without bpa lining if possible)

1 cup chopped parsley

2 green onions with stems, finely chopped

1 yellow bell pepper, finely chopped

1 red bell pepper, finely chopped

1/2 cup cooked quinoa

1 English cucumber, finely chopped

Zest of 1 lemon

1 lemon juiced

salt and pepper to taste

olive oil

- Mix all ingredients and save in fridge until ready to eat. This salad gets tastier the longer it stays! Enjoy with some ripe avocado and a grilled protein of your choice :)