Roasted Late Summer Salad

I’m holding on to summer for as long as possible, eating large tomato salads with green beans and roasting ripe tomatoes for pasta sauces. It’s the best time for ‘Mediterranean’ vegetables, as they are at their ripest and sweetest and good value.

For a roasted salad make up the mix with what ever vegetables you have at home, but it’s important to roast the aubergine first and then add the other vegetables, there is nothing worse than undercooked rubbery aubergine.

Roasted Late Summer Salad

Serves:4

Dietary: Vegan, Gluten Free

Ingredients:

• 1 aubergine, thickly sliced
• 1 bulb of fennel, sliced
• 1 red pepper, sliced
• 1 yellow pepper, sliced
• 1 courgette, sliced thickly
• olive oil for roasting

Dressing

• 2 tbsps olive oil
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp white balsamic (if you have some)
• sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
• lots of flat parsley

Method:

• Pre-heat the oven to 200C.
• In a large roasting tin, add two tablespoons of olive oil and put in the oven to heat up for a few minutes. Take the roasting tin out carefully and stir in the aubergine, put back in the oven and roast for 15 minutes. Then add the fennel and peppers and roast for a further 10 minutes, then add the courgette, stir well and roast until the courgette is just tender.
• Decant into a large bowl, add the dressing whilst the vegetables are still hot and season to taste.
• Serve with a quinoa salad, top with roasted pumpkin seeds and feta or even serve with some veggie sausages.