Zaalouk (Eggplant and Tomato Salad) Recipe (2024)

I lived in Morocco with a Moroccan family as a teenager. Zaalouk is one of my favorite Moroccan dishes. In my own recipe, provided by my Moroccan mother, the eggplant are halved, salted and then baked. Afterwards they are barber-striped, chopped and cooked with the tomatoes and other ingredients. The key to good Zaalouk is that it must be cooked down to a thick paste - it can't be wet. I use cumin, cayenne and cardamom in my Zaalouk, each added until it tastes just like home.

I grate tomatoes all the time for Indian dishes — as someone else said, cut in half and grate with box grater until you reach the skin. It’s easy and quick. Do it in a curved dish - like a pie plate - because it can be watery and you want the juice in your dish, not all over the kitchen counter.

I half-peeled the eggplant. I halved the recipe but like usual I start the recipe with halves, get distracted by the radio, and add all the later ingredients per the directions. In this case that meant double the seasonings. Still good! Also used smoked paprika instead of sweet because I love it.

Leave eggplant skins on. Photo shows eggplant skins in the dish (if you look closely). An alternative would be to partially peel.

Just get a medium sized bowl, and put in a box grater. Cut tomatoes in half and grate down to the skin.

Peel the eggplants?

To grate tomatoes no need to cut in half. Hold the tomato with the stem end (top) facing the inside of your palm. Proceed to grate on the large holes of a box grater until you reach the end. The skin magically stays intact in your hand as the flesh is being grated!

Peel the eggplants.

Delicious! Made with a few modifications based on the reviews: roasted the eggplant (tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper), grated heirloom tomatoes, added the roasted eggplant, grated garlic, cumin, salt and smoked sweet paprika, and simmered to a paste. The eggplant skins seemed to stay pretty separate so I pulled them out (next time would peel beforehand). Did not need the honey or lemon, but if tomatoes weren’t so great, might need. Cilantro at the end for a fresh note.

I agree that, as written, the final result lacked a little something. I added more of the seasonings and still came up a little short on flavor. Then I added 2 teaspoons of a rather fiery Moroccan harissa and that did the trick. It was delicious. But be careful with that stuff.

A wonderful side dish with grilled lamb chops and orzo pasta tossed with olive oil and minced parsley. My tomatoes weren’t as flavorful as I’d have liked, so added a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste. Per some reviewers suggestions, I added a squirt of sriracha to give a little heat. we loved it.

This was perfection. I didn't have cilantro so I replaced it with 1 1/2 TBSP of parsley and 1/2 TBSP chopped mint and I gotta stick with this now it's too good just like this. FWIW I peeled half the eggplant, and found the pieces needed to be a bit smaller - like 1" instead of 1 1/2".

Meh. It was easy enough to make, but definitely needed something. I threw in some harissa spice, and it helped, but not enough.

Remarkably flavorless, even with heirloom tomatoes and doubled spices.

The difference between a good Zaalouk and a great one is using a fork to peel out 'noodles' of smoked eggplant so the final result isn't a mash but a lovely textured hot salad. Many cuisines have mashed eggplant (Indian bharta for example) but introducing texture is everything. Learnt this hack from British cook Tara Stevens! Texture converts eggplant haters to lovers!

Should we keep the tomato juice? Or discard it and add only the grated tomato flesh?

Just made it. I can see why people like this. It's like baba ghanouj but with tomatoes instead of tahini. I will be making this again.

This is a great recipe! I used good smoked paprika and it gave the whole dish an extra boost.

Grated tomatoes? I've never heard of that before and I'm not sure how one would go about grating a tomato. Aren't they too squishy to grate? Is there a reason diced tomatoes wouldn't work just as well?

What type of eggplant should I get at the store? The large wide ones, not the Japanese or white ones, right?

This recipe is quick, easy and tasty. I loved grating the tomatoes--so much fun. It's a great summer/fall recipe for using eggplants, tomatoes and garlic straight from the garden. Next time, I'll try charring the eggplant. I served it alongside of "George Foremanned" salmon.

I enjoy everything eggplant.

A wonderful side dish with grilled lamb chops and orzo pasta tossed with olive oil and minced parsley. My tomatoes weren’t as flavorful as I’d have liked, so added a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste. Per some reviewers suggestions, I added a squirt of sriracha to give a little heat. we loved it.

Delicious! Made with a few modifications based on the reviews: roasted the eggplant (tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper), grated heirloom tomatoes, added the roasted eggplant, grated garlic, cumin, salt and smoked sweet paprika, and simmered to a paste. The eggplant skins seemed to stay pretty separate so I pulled them out (next time would peel beforehand). Did not need the honey or lemon, but if tomatoes weren’t so great, might need. Cilantro at the end for a fresh note.

Made it as described but chopped the tomatoes instead of grated and it came out great! (without the optional ingredients.) From what I've read online, for recipes like this one grating is considered a shortcut and also removes the skin, so if you have sharp knives and don't mind the skin, chopped should be just fine. Can't say I even noticed the tomato skin in the final dish.

So we do love the recipe and make It weekly for use in sandwiched and as a condiment. It has evolved over the past months though. We have doubled the fresh tomato, use a whole smallCan of tomato paste, reduced the cumin by 1/3. Added 2 more tbs of oil and added 1.5tbs of Japanese Tare (recipe below we put in everything try a the in coleslaw your head willSpin) to the the step of adding tomato’s. The rare adds an umami that one can’t imagine and disappears to be undetectable save the mouth fe