Grilled Veggie Salad and Baba Ganoush

Whenever I grill vegetables, I always try to make extra to use over the following few days. Cook once, eat twice (or three, or even four times).

Since I don't eat much pasta, but still LOVE a good marinara sauce, I like to grill peppers and strips of eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash to top with sauce for a pasta-less "spaghetti" dinner. Even though my CSA has been struggling with the drought here in the south, I've managed to get a good supply of these grilling-vegetables this summer. This week I used my grilled left-overs to make this beauty of a salad, which took, literally five minutes to assemble and dress:

(Those are cannellini beans [aka: white kidney beans] that I simmered with some rosemary and crushed red peppers the night before, and the salad is topped with a little bit of herbed goat cheese. Everything was dressed with a little tiny drizzle of olive oil, some champaign vinegar and a bit of oregano, salt & pepper.)

Since I still had some leftover grilled vegetables after I made the salad, I turned the rest into a super-easy version of baba ganoush:

1 1/2 - 2 cups grilled eggplant (I used mostly eggplant, but threw in a piece of zucchini and yellow squash, too)

2 Tablespoons tahini

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 lemon (peeled [by just cutting off the peel] and seeded)

1 teaspoon salt (more or less to taste)

Add all ingredients to blender and puree until desired consistency. Serve with pita bread, crackers, or - my favorite - fresh veggies. This also makes a great sandwich spread or dressing for wraps.