Black Sea Salata De Vinete is a light, easy to make, and very tasty salad, one of the most popular in the Black Sea Cuisine.

The key thing is to make sure you get very good eggplants.

Course – Salad / Appetiser

Serves 4

Preparation time – 15 minutes  Baking time – 30 minutes

2-3 large eggplants with slightly soft consistency

1/2 onion finely diced

3-4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil of not too strong taste

Juice of 1-1 ½ lemons

Salt

Preparation of the dish is simple.

Pierce eggplants with a fork on all sides in order to allow steam and liquid to drain during baking. Bake the eggplants on a baking tray in the oven or grill them until skin carbonised and core become soft. Do not forget to periodically rotate baked eggplants until all sides are well cooked and the eggplants begin releasing juices. Remove eggplants from the oven and put weight pressure on them to drain bitter juice.

Finely dice onion. Remove liquid which came out from eggplants. Peel off the skin and remove any burns. Placed in a sieve to drain well off all the liquid. Use only non-metallic or stainless steel tools, otherwise the eggplant will turn black. Put eggplant flesh in a bowl and mash with the fork or chop it very well with the knife. Add diced onions, salt, olive oil, and lemon juice. Choose the olive oil which is not too strong in a taste, otherwise it will overshadow the taste of eggplant.

Chill down in the fridge for two hours. Serve cold with a slice of fresh Black Sea Stone Oven Bread. Seasoned with a little extra lemon juice.

Black Sea Salata De Vinete can be prepared in advance. Traditionally it is served cold.

It goes well with a glass of white wine or beer.

You can enjoy Black Sea Salata De Vinete with friends and family in #BlackSeaCuisine restaurants or at home as it is very easy to prepare yourself.

Black Sea Cuisine is simple, tasty and inexpensive.