Eggplant Salad / Badanekayi Salad

Eggplant aka Brinjal aka Aubergines, are versatile vegetables. They are great in curries, steamed, fried, grilled, in pickles, pizzas, with rice ....the list goes on. I love them. I got to pile them onto my cart every time I look at them in the super market. It reminds me of a friend who I happened to meet in the supermarket, back during my university days. I was as usual piling on more eggplants. This friend smiled at me looking at all the eggplants in my basket and said earnestly, 'Anybody can cook with these many eggplants and not go wrong'. I smiled and nodded. Another friend who was with me was almost giggling. She hated eggplants and could horribly go wrong with them. We looked at each other and reminded ourselves of the dangers of blanket statements.

Today, I have some eggplant salad. Well I would say this is just a twist on good old Badanekayi Gojju . It is just jazzed up a bit and served in a fancy way.

We will need,

Eggplant 1 (the giants one)
Peanut oil 2 tsp (divided)
Peanuts 3 tbsp (about a handful)
Green chillies 2-3 (chopped)
Grape tomatoes 4-5 chopped
Ginger 1" (grated)
Soy sauce 1-2 tsp
Juice of one lemon
Fresh Coriander  a handful (chopped)
Salt

To serve,
Romaine lettuce 1

Method:

• Slice the eggplants into 1/4" discs.  Heat a skillet with about 1/2 tsp of oil. Saute the eggplant slices, if necessary in batches. Remove once it is soft.
• In a separate  skillet, toast the peanuts and remove from heat once fragrant. Set it aside to cool.
• In a bowl, mix the green chillies, ginger, soy sauce, lemon juice, grape tomatoes and fresh coriander.
• Chop the cooled eggplants into bite size pieces. Crush the cooled peanuts.
• Stir the eggplants, the green chillies mixture and peanuts. Check taste and adjust salt-lemon juice. Sit this mixture for a few hours.
• Clean the lettuce and shred the into large pieces. 
• Place the lettuce on serving platter and fill the lettuce with spoonfuls of eggplant mixture. Serve immediately.