Mediterranean eggplant and barley salad

Another Smitten Kitchen success – this salad relies on a base of roasted eggplant and zucchini, and barley cooked in stock (I used chicken but you can use vegetable to make it vegetarian).

What I loved about this one was the depth of flavours.  This was no boring salad – it was rich, complicated, flavoursome.  All this, without too much effort.  There are many components to the recipe, but each one is fairly simple and although take a bit of time don’t require much watching.  Furthermore, it can be made in advance and served at room temperature – which is exactly what I did.

I served our salad with marinated feta from Margaret River, and plain beef sausages from Honest Beef.  However, the salad is easily a meal in itself – I ate it the next day for lunch and was perfectly full and satisfied.

My final conclusion – make this recipe.  Do it now while tomatoes and eggplant are still in season.  Trust me, you’ll be glad that you did.  It’s going on my high rotation list.

While you’re at it, check out the rest of the Smitten Kitchen website – fantastic recipes, amazing photographs.