This traditional Moroccan Eggplant Salad is inspired by a cooking class in Marrakesh, Morocco! It's so simple to make and delicious!
Also Featured In
This recipe is also featured in the following vegan recipe roundups:
Cooking Class in Marrakesh, Morocco
The cooking class in Marrakesh, Morroco was one of the highlights of the three week trip for me and I had so much fun getting hands on experience cooking traditional Moroccan bread, salads, and a vegetable tajine.
Recipe Intro
The recipe I'm sharing with you today is a Traditional Moroccan Eggplant Salad and it's one of the recipes we learned how to prepare during the cooking class. It also ended up being my favorite part of the meal we enjoyed at the end of the class.
This salad on top of fresh, Moroccan bread...amazing.
While I'm hopeful that I'll try making all of the recipes we learned how to prepare during the class at some point this summer, I knew this Traditional Moroccan Eggplant Salad would be the first recipe I would recreate. It's simple to make and uses spices that I already had in my house. Eggplant is also a vegetable that I rarely cook with, so I thought making this recipe at home would get me more excited to incorporate eggplant into our meals more often.
How This Recipe Is Traditionally Made
Traditionally, this Traditional Moroccan Eggplant Salad recipe calls for a lot of olive oil. The oil definitely adds some flavor to the dish, but it also adds a lot of...well, oil...which I usually don't care to eat. At home, I decided to make this recipe sans olive oil and it turned out great in my opinion, so feel free to do make it whatever way you prefer!
Considerations
The eggplant and tomato in this recipe are prepared differently that I would have expected. The eggplant is roughly chopped and then boil in water with a little salt until super soft. As for the tomatoes, the customary way to prepare them is to cut the top off and grate them so that all of the flesh, juice and seeds are removed, while the skin remains and is discarded. I had never heard of grating tomatoes, so that was a interesting technique to learn!
If you like Moroccan food, or just like to cook different kinds of cuisines, I hope you give this Traditional Moroccan Eggplant Salad a try!
📖 Recipe
Traditional Moroccan Eggplant Salad
Ingredients
- 1 large eggplant ~5 cups chopped
- 3 medium tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons olive oil* optional
- 3 cloves of garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- ⅓ cup finely chopped cilantro and parsley
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Wash the eggplant, cut off the ends and cut it into large chunks. Boil the eggplant until thoroughly cooked through, about 15 minutes
- While the eggplant is boiling, cut off the ends of the tomatoes and grate them until all the seeds and flesh are removed and the skin remains. Discard the skin.
- Once reduced, add in the eggplant and cilantro/parsley mixture. Mix well and mash with a potato masher until mixture is well blended.
- Garnish with parsley.
- Serve warm or cold
janet @ the taste space says
I always find the best meals from my vacation are from the cooking classes. Morocco was no exception. We took a class at a nearby riad and she even helped us buy a tagine at the local price. 😉 Your eggplant "salad" totally brings back great memories. Looks great and thanks for sharing.
Faith says
That's so neat you've been able to do multiple cooking classes while traveling Janet! I wish I had had room in my luggage to buy a tagine. I would love to recreate the veggie tagine we were taught how to make at my class. I'm glad you're able to re-live your trip a little through this post! 🙂
Alyssa @ Renaissancerunnergirl says
This looks delicious! I am like you - I prefer to cook with a bit of good olive oil, but not the heaps a lot of traditional recipes call for, simply because it works better for my body. So it's great to know an oil-less or oil-light recipe works 🙂
Faith says
Thanks Alyssa! Glad to know the oil-less/light options are helpful for you!
Pragati // Simple Medicine says
I love eggplant and this sounds so delicious! I am growing eggplant in my garden and I know exactly what to do with it when it's ready to pick!
Faith says
Wow...growing your own eggplant?! That's awesome Pragati! I have such a black thumb...or whatever the opposite of a green thumb is:) I hope you try this out once your eggplant's ready!!
Deborah @ Confessions of a Mother Runner says
Nice to have you join us again! I love eggplant like this. the cumin and paprika are fabulous with eggplant. Thanks for sharing and hope you are having fun on your adventures.
Faith says
It's nice to be back Deborah! Thanks for hosting and always saying hi:)
Leah @ Grain Changer says
That cooking class in Morocco sounds like it was SO much fun!! The eggplant at our farmers markets have looked INCREDIBLE recently, and now I have a wonderful "excuse" to load up on them 🙂 Can't wait to try this, Faith!!
Faith says
It really was Leah! But I'm obsessed with anything cooking related:) Ah, sounds amazing! Hope you can try this out!
Liv @ Healthy Liv says
This looks incredible! I'm like you and rarely cook with eggplant because it isn't usually something I crave but my friend made some awesome roasted veggies with eggplant mixed in and now I'm tempted to do some more cooking with it. This salad looks super yummy and I just pinned it to make later!
Faith says
I've never roasted eggplant before! I should try that next! Let me know if you try it:)
tina muir says
I did miss it! You took a cooking class in Marrakech, that is SO cool! Wow, I can only imagine you being like a sponge, soaking EVERYTHING in. This sounds lovely, and so unique. I love that it is inspired by what you learned 🙂
Faith says
It was so fun Tina! But anything involving cooking and different cuisines gets me excited:) Thanks for hosting!