This healthy salad originates from my city of Valencia. It is called “escarraget” and is made by roasting red bell peppers, and mixing it with salted cod fish then splashed with olive oil and and lots of garlic. I have made a “vegan” version of this substituting the fish with eggplant. This recipe comes with a video tutorial so you can see exactly how it is done. This salad is best made a day in advance and ofcoruse you need to use a good quality of extra virgen olive oil. It is delicious, healthy, and makes an excellent sandwich filling, or even a topping for canapes. Just sit back with a drink and enjoy this salad.
INGREDIENTS:
Red bell peppers
Eggplant
Garlic
Extra virgen spanish olive oil ( you can see the pretty spanish lady holding her bottle of oil in the video)
and salt to taste
METHOD:
Put the peppers and the eggplant in an oven tray and bake on high heat till they get roasted, I prick the eggplant before i roast them so that they dont burst while baking. Once they are baked thoroughly i leave them in the oven with the heat off to cool so that its easier to peel. Once cooled thoroughly i carefully reserve all the liquid thats come out while roasting. This is very flavourful and can be used in your cooking. Carefully peel the peppers and eggplant and then with your fingers tear them into strips. Place them in a bowl. Add some chopped garlic, salt and a very generous splash of extra virgen olive oil. Mix well and refrigerate. This tastes amazing with time and the spanish actually top it with olive oil so that they can dip their bread in it.
NITU DIDI COOKING TIP:
If you want to make it the valenciana way, just soak some dried cod for 24 hours changing the water every 6-8 hours. Rinse it, and then just shred it and add it to the salad and omit the salt. Like my recipes??? Do DONATE
HERE IS THE VIDEO: