Warm Mediterranean Eggplant and Bulgur Salad with Feta

Summer salad with bulgur, roasted veg and feta on a plate.

Warm Mediterranean Eggplant and Bulgur Salad with Feta

10 min to prepare, 30 min in the oven for an easy, refreshing Meditteranean summer salad with roasted eggplant, zucchini, olives and grain. Perfect for a crowd, for parents, toddlers, adaptable for picky eaters and baby-led weaning for lunch or dinner.

Course dinner, Lunch

Cuisine Greek-inspired

Diet Vegetarian

Fridge Life? 3 days

Freezable? No

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 30

Total Time 40

Servings servings

Calories 759kcal

Author Dora

Ingredients

Salad

4 oz bulgur
1 cup water for bulgur
1 zucchini medium-sized
1 eggplant medium-sized
3.5 oz cherry tomatoes
3.5 oz feta cheese
10 olives
2 tablespoon olive oil
salt omit for babies under 1
pepper

Dressing

3 tablespoon olive oil
1½ tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon mustard

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F.
Wash and cut the zucchini and eggplant into pieces about 1 cm thick. You can peel the skin off also if you wish. For baby-led weaning, peel the eggplant and zucchini and cut the veg the width and length of about 2 adult fingers stuck together. Omit the salt.
Wash about half of the cherry tomatoes and cut in halves.
Place the veggies into a mixing bowl, add the 2 tablespoon of olive oil, salt and pepper and mix everything with your hands.
Line an oven baking tin with parchment paper and place the veggies on the baking tin.
Bake for about 30 minutes. Until soft but now overbaked (for baby-led weaning and pincer grasp you want them to be soft enough so you can mash them between your fingers).
Meanwhile, place the bulgur in a roasting tin and add water and place in the oven for 20 minutes. Allow to cool for about 20 minutes.
Cut the feta into cubes, olives into halves and the rest of the cherry tomatoes into halves. If the olives have a seed, remove it.
Prepare the dressing - mix the olive oil, balsamic vinegar and mustard.
Once the veggies are baked, take out from the oven and allow to cool for about 20 minutes.
Place the cooled veggies into a serving bowl, add the feta, olives, fresh cherry tomatoes and cooled bulgur and mix.
Pour the dressing over the salad before serving.

Notes

Nutrition calculation is an estimate and is based on an adult serving of this meal.

How to serve to babies and toddlers?

Omit salt from the recipe
Baby-led Weaning
- Peel the zucchini and eggplant and cut into the width and length of two adult fingers stuck together
- Serve with bulgur wheat on a preloaded spoon
- Avoid feta, olives, and cherry tomatoes
9 months old+ (or whenever ready for pincer grasp)
- Cut up eggplant, zucchini, and cherry tomatoes into bite-size pieces or the same as for baby-led weaning
- Serve bulgur on a preloaded spoon
- Avoid feta and olives
Toddlers
- Serve the same as for parents but keep feta on the lower end because of the high sodium amount
- For picky eaters, you can serve the ingredients separately

Don't use too much salt. When baking veggies, use just a small amount of salt when you mix them with olive oil. A few pinches are enough to help the eggplant release its natural sourness and to enhance the taste of the veggies. If you use too much the final dish might be too salty because you're also using feta cheese which is naturally salty.

Don't overbake the veggies. The veggies should be as the Italians would say "al dente". This means that they will be cooked but still a bit firm so that they hold the texture. If you overbake them they will be too soft and probably release too much water that will interfere with the salad's consistency.

Allow the veggies and bulgur to cool. I highly recommend you let the veggies and bulgur cool enough before mixing in with the rest of the ingredients. This will probably be about 20 minutes for each. If you mix them in while they are still hot or very warm chances are they heat the feta cheese and olives and the overall taste won't be as good.

Nutrition