Mediterranean Roasted Eggplant Salad

Instructions

1. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise. Place on a cutting board sliced side up, sprinkle with salt and leave for 30 minutes. The eggplant will release some moisture which helps to get rid of the slightly bitter taste typical for larger eggplant varieties. (You don't have to do this if you don't mind the bitter taste. Some people are more sensitive to bitter taste than others. I, for example, cannot handle it so I always sprinkle eggplant with salt before cooking).
2. Preheat the oven to 350F.
3. Oil a baking sheet with a little bit of olive oil. Place the eggplant halves on the baking sheet sliced side down. Place the baking sheet in the oven and roast for about 10 minutes.
4. In the meantime, cut the bell peppers in half and clean out the stems and seeds.
5. Most likely, you won't be able to fit all the veggies on one baking sheet. So put the bell peppers skin side up and tomatoes on another baking sheet and place it in the oven as well. Roast the vegetables for another 50 minutes or until the veggies are soft and bell pepper skins start to char.
6. Remove the baking sheets from the oven. Leave the eggplant on the baking sheet to cool. Transfer the bell peppers and tomatoes into a bowl; cover the bowl and let the veggies cool. This makes it easier to peel the skin from the bell peppers and tomatoes.
7. Once cool enough to handle. Scrape the eggplant flesh onto a cutting board and cut into chunks. Pour half of the lemon juice over the eggplant and transfer to a salad bowl.
8. Remove the skin from the bell peppers and chop them into bite-size pieces. Remove the skin and seeds from the tomatoes and chop them as well.
9. Add all the chopped veggies to the eggplant. At this point, you might notice that a lot of liquid was released from the veggies into the bowl. I prefer to drain some of the liquid.
10. Add the rest of the lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, chopped cilantro and basil. Season with salt if desired. Mix everything to combine and serve.