Ethiopian Eggplant Salad

I should begin with: I'm not Ethiopian. I made this recipe twice, in one day, this summer, with garden fresh eggplants. I began this recipe, waited 30 minutes to drain off the salty water that accumulated with the bitter juices of the eggplant. It wasn't actually bitter, but that's the principle behind salting it and letting it sit. Then I sprinkled the oil and began with the rest of the ingredients. I like eggplant. I didn't like this. So I took two more eggplants, peeled, diced them, and then salted them, squeezed the water out, blotted them dry, and BAKED the cubes. When they were tender, I let them cool a bit, tossed them with 3 cups of blackeyed peas, salt and pepper and the remaining ingredients, and refrigerated. I took a serving out, put it on a small salad plate, let it come to room temperature and tasted it. Nice big lemon, or two lemons are needed. It's GOOD!! If you like eggplant, BAKE it, then make it. I'm not sure if it's an error, or what, but it tasted good cooked, raw it was rather fibrous, off tasting, and uninspiring. I imagine you could cook the cubes on the stove in a bit of olive oil, but I thought it was terrible raw.