Cold Vegetable Salad

You love salads but want something other than lettuce? Try a char grilled cold vegetable salad. Easy to make, this is great for barbecues, picnics, in fact anytime and best served cold, so you can make enough leftovers for the next day!

The below is what I put in but you can add in whatever you like. The more wonderful colours you can have in this salad the better:

*Yield: 8 servings (serving size: about 3/4 cup)


Ingredients:

2 red bell peppers, halved and seeded

1 1/2 pounds eggplant, cut into (1/2-inch-thick) slices (about 2 medium)

1 sweet onion, cut into 8 wedges

1 pint cherry tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided

3/4 teaspoon salt, divided

Cooking spray

1 tablespoon champagne vinegar

1/2 teaspoon sugar

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 ounce oil-cured olives (about 12), pitted and halved

1/4 cup fresh small basil leaves

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chives


Preparation:

1. Preheat grill to medium-high heat.

2. Combine first 4 ingredients, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, 1 tablespoon oil, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Place bell peppers, skin sides down, and onion on grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 10 minutes. Turn onion; add eggplant to grill. Remove bell peppers. Place bell peppers in a zip-top bag; seal. Let stand 10 minutes. Grill eggplant and onion 5 minutes; remove onion. Turn eggplant; grill 5 minutes. Remove eggplant. Add tomatoes to a grill basket; grill 5 minutes. Remove bell peppers from bag. Peel and discard skins; slice lengthwise.


3. Combine 1/4 teaspoon salt, vinegar, and sugar. Slowly add 2 tablespoons oil, stirring with a whisk. Combine vegetables, dressing, garlic, and olives. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, basil, and chives.


Nutritional Information:

Calories: 99

Fat: 5.9g (saturated 0.8g, mono 4g, poly 0.8g)

Protein: 2g

Carbohydrate: 11.7g

Dietary Fiber: 4.7g

Cholesterol: 0.0mg

Iron: 0.9mg

Sodium: 258mg

Calcium: 23mg


*Here I'd like to tell you about my favorite diet program that uses a lot of the healthy lower GI foods: Isabel de los Rios' 'The Diet Solution Program'.

The Diet Solution Program favours a long term health orientated approach to fat loss, but not offering anyone a quick fix to their weight troubles. It has loads of valuable data and research to support its approach. I personally investigated the program thoroughly and my mum has been using it for a while now. I have to say she got some great results.

The nutrition plan is one of the healthiest we have seen, a strong core focus on vegetables, fruits, vitamin dense foods, lean proteins, select dairy produce and a clear approach to not expecting one diet to work for all body types. So give it a try and let me know how you’re doing.*

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