Supper Club: Chargrilled Vegetable Salad with Balsamic Glaze

The best conversations happen around the table, and for Lauren her passion for cooking and sharing meals with family and friends has encouraged her to expand our French Flax Linen dining range. This month we launched Ruffles Dining with classic Table Cloths and Napkins to be enjoyed and treasured. Lauren shared a simple dish she regularly makes to serve before the main meal or even as an accompaniment to the mains like fish or lamb.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees.

2. Next, start by preparing the vegetables. You can be a little rustic in your approach but slice the eggplant and zucchini longways into thin strips, slice the tomatoes and trim the broccolini.

3. You’ll want to pop your tomatoes in the oven to get them cooking, the aim is for them to almost get a bit caramelised so they turn into a tomato like jam. Layer them out in rows then give them a good glug of oil and sprinkle of salt and pepper. Place them in the oven and then check on them in about 10 mins. When you check on them you might want to give them a bit of a stir in the pan to help the jam making process a bit!

4. Next you want to have a pan heating up - the important part is it needs to be a cast iron griddle pan so it means when the vegetables cook and char they get those lovely little charred lines across them! Let the pan get really hot where it’s almost smoking then add a good glug of the olive oil and start cooking the vegetables in batches.

5. You can start with the eggplant first, in my pan I can usually fit about 3 slices long ways. I keep cooking them then remove and put on a plate.

6. I continue this cooking by doing the zucchini and broccolini in batches as well and put on the plate. 

7. Once all the vegetables are cooked it’s time to prepare the salad. By now (and don’t forget to keep checking your tomato jam) your tomatoes should be deliciously cooked as well.

8. Choose a serving plate and arrange the vegetables by taking a portion of eggplant, zucchini and broccolini and repeating. But honestly it’s up to you as you might want to keep each vegetable in its own section on the plate. 

9. Now the vegetables are assembled, take your balsamic glaze and drizzle a small amount across all the vegetables. You don’t want too much as the tomatoes will already add some sweetness.

10. I’d always recommend serving this with a delicious soft burrata and some bread that has been toasted. You can then almost make your own bruschetta or use the toasted bread to mop up the tomato jam and cheese. Yum!

Q: You can invite six celebrities, dead or alive; who would they be?

• David Attenborough
• Spike Jonze
• Hedi Lamarr
• Yves Saint Laurent
• David Bowie
• Helmut Newton
  
  

Q: What would the playlist sound like?

• Nina Simone
• David Bowie
• Philipp Glass
• Boney M
• Serge Gainsboug
• Roxy Music