Perfectly tender smoky Grilled Eggplant with fresh Greek relish and creamy polenta. An easy and healthy meatless dinner. Vegan adaptable and gluten-free. Video!
All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art. ~Jorge Borges
This Grilled Eggplant Recipe is just the thing for a light summer supper. Smoky and tender, the eggplant cooks in under 10 minutes on the grill.
It pairs perfectly with cool and crunchy Greek relish that boasts fresh garden tomatoes, cucumbers, and chickpeas tossed in a simple sherry vinaigrette. Serve over creamy polenta for a satisfying clean and easy meal. We like adding sheep feta to ours but it can easily be kept vegan!
Grilled Eggplant | 60-sec video
Gather up some fresh farmer’s market veggies and polenta. I prefer the coarse grits for the texture, but can easily be substituted with cornmeal or half of each cornmeal and polenta.
Start with whisking corn grits into salted boiling water. (Be careful! Speaking from experience, boiling polenta can seriously burn!). Let simmer covered, 20 minutes while you prepare the relish.
The relish comes together quickly with just chopped veggies, herbs, chickpeas, and kalamata olives in a simple sherry vinaigrette.
You can definitely substitute red wine vinegar here, though I recommend cutting down the amount. Sherry vinegar is softer, less harsh and has a more complex flavor.
How to Cook Grilled Eggplant
Step one: Preheat grill for 10 minutes on high. Slice eggplant into 3/4 inch slices. Round or long slices, either way works.
Step two: Brush eggplant with olive oil.
Step three: Turn the temperature down on grill to medium-high heat. Sprinkle salt over eggplant and place on the grill. Closing the lid for 3-4 minutes. This is the key to perfectly cooked eggplant, assuring that it is baking while it grills. Flip over, salting again if desired, cook for another 4 minutes, lid closed!
Tip: Place the grilled eggplant in a stack as you remove from the grill, this will keep the slices warm and finish softening them so they are perfectly tender and delicious!
How to Serve Grilled Eggplant:
- Scoop warm polenta onto plates.
- Arrange 3-4 slices of eggplant on top.
- Top generously with Greek relish.
- Add feta cheese if desired!
Enjoy! Tonia
More Eggplant recipes you may like to try:
- Eggplant Chickpea Tagine
- Lebanese Stuffed Eggplant
- Thai Grilled Eggplant Salad
- Roasted Eggplant Lasagna with Arugula Pesto
- Grilled Eggplant Steaks with Gremolata and Tomatoes
- Middle Eastern Eggplant Wrap
- Grilled Veggies
- Grilled Eggplant Salad with Freekeh and Yogurt Dressing
- Meltingly Tender Moroccan Eggplant
- 20 Healthy Eggplant Recipes
Grilled Eggplant with Creamy Polenta and Greek Relish
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: vegan, main, grilled, vegetarian
- Method: grilled
- Cuisine: Greek
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Perfectly tender smoky Grilled Eggplant with fresh Greek relish and creamy polenta. An easy and healthy meatless dinner. Vegan adaptable and gluten-free.
Ingredients
Creamy Polenta
- 4 cups water
- 1 teaspoons sea salt
- 1 cup polenta
- 1–2 tablespoons unsalted butter, or olive oil
Fresh Greek Relish
- 1 cup tomatoes, chopped about 1 medium
- 1 cup cucumber, about 1 small
- 1/2 cup sweet onion, chopped small
- 1 tablespoon fresh oregano, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup fresh basil, torn into bite size pieces
- 1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives, cut in half
- 1/2 cup cooked chickpeas
- 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- optional- 3-6 oz feta(sheep feta is preferred)
Grilled Eggplant
- 2 medium eggplants, cut in 3/4 inch rounds
- olive oil
- sea salt
Instructions
Make Polenta:
- Boil water with salt.
- Slowly add polenta while whisking. Stir until slightly thickening and fully incorporated.
- Turn heat to low. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring 2-3 times.
- Once polenta has softened, stir in butter or olive oil.
Make the Greek relish:
- Mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl.
Grill Eggplant:
- Heat the grill to full high heat.
- Brush eggplant with olive oil.
- Turn the grill to medium heat, sprinkle salt over eggplant, and place on the grill. Close the lid for 3- 4 minutes. This is the key to perfectly cooked eggplant, assuring that it is baking while it grills. Flip over, salting again if desired, cook for another 4 minutes. Flip the eggplant over and close the lid again for another 3-4 minutes.
- The eggplant will continue to soften once removed from the heat. You can stack them on top of each other, covered with foil, to continue to cook and soften.
Assemble:
Divide polenta among 4 bowls, then top with grilled eggplant and the fresh Greek relish.
Notes
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 351
- Sugar: 4.1 g
- Sodium: 1692.6 mg
- Fat: 21.6 g
- Saturated Fat: 5.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 34.7 g
- Fiber: 5.9 g
- Protein: 8 g
- Cholesterol: 18.9 mg
Absolutely delicious. I substituted goat cheese for the feta because it was what I had. Definitely a keeper!!
Sounds yummy Nancy!
I rarely find a recipe on FAH that I don’t like but this one didn’t do much for me. Did the instructions perhap miss adding salt to the eggplant? The only think I did differently was to spray on the olive oil instead of brushing it on.
Was it just the eggplant that didn’t turn out or the whole dish? The salt is in there, I tried to make it more clear.
Absolutely delicious!
Great to hear Cathleen!
Another incredibly easy and delicious recipe! The grilled eggplant instructions were perfect and the flavors superb. Don’t hesitate to make this recipe!
Thanks Kristine!
Hi Tonia,
Thank you for a terrific recipe. I followed your x2 but substituted as required to make this cholesterol free. Grilled the eggplant on the charcoal Weber, placed the cooked polenta into a 10 x 15 Pyrex then placed the grilled eggplant on top. When serving, we cut polenta and eggplant in to six servings, plated them for two, heated everything and finished with the relish, a salad and home made bread.
…absolutely spectacular!
Sounds amazing! So glad you adapted and enjoyed it Loren!
Made this today and roasted the eggplant for 20 minutes after brushing with olive oil and salt/pepper both sides. I broiled it for a few minutes per side to crisp up. For the relish, I was out of kalamatas but subbed in capers. Yummy!
Thanks Anna!
This recipe is fabulous!! I don’t know what to say, other than: just make it and enjoy!! I made it without the cheese. Sprinkled a little cashew parmesan over the eggplant (good but it didn’t need it). Grilled the eggplant on my ancient Foreman grill and it cooked perfectly. Put the recipe directly into my “favs” file.
Thank you, Sylvia.
So happy you enjoyed this one!
Insanely good!! I made couscous in the rice cooker because I was feeling lazy lol. I kept it vegan. Super quick to put together and was absolutely delicious!! The Greek relish makes the dish. Thank you for such a simple, summer-friendly recipe 🙂
Thanks Angeli!
So good! I don’t have a grill so I roasted the eggplant. Came out fabulous. Also since my family doesn’t like eggplant, for them I substituted portobello mushrooms. They really liked it!
Perfect Maria, thanks!
This recipe had so many nice flavors! Eggplant and polenta are not something I usually make but I was up for a change. The eggplant cooked up very nicely and we actually did the polenta in an instapot which turned out perfect. The relish on top gave everything a nice additional flavor. Very easy to all put together.
Glad you enjoyed this Christine!
This was delicious summer vegan fare! Had to try this after looking at that photo.
Glad you enjoyed!
I made this recipe last night and as is usual with EVERY recipe of Sylvia’s, it was spot on. I found it to be pretty efficient to prepare because I made the polenta in the instantpot. I doubled the Mediterranean salad because I love veggies. It was superb! I was going to add some Bulgarian feta, but completely forgot and I didn’t miss it. However, I added it to the leftovers today and it was a nice addition. I loved the tangy crunch of the salad with the creamy textures of polenta and grilled eggplant.
Awesome Betsy!
OMIGOD! We LOVED this meal! Eggplant fresh from our garden, so sweet and delectable.
Yay! Fresh from the garden is THE BEST!
This is the simple, healthy and utterly fabulous food of my Italian childhood and after I married my Greek husband, the food of my adulthood. This is such a beautiful and balanced plate in color, texture and taste. The smoky eggplant, the vinegary salad, and the creamy polenta…I could eat this every day! I hope everyone enjoys this as much as we did!
Love it Terri. So happy you enjoyed!