My daily trips to the vegetable garden are a weight-lifting exercise these days. An abundance of tomatoes and eggplant has me scrambling to find new ways to use our bounty. A grain salad that uses fresh vegetables and herbs is just what we needed to serve along with grilled chicken. A great make-ahead dish, nutty, nutritious barley is combined with seasonal vegetables and a lemony dressing. What starts out as looking like too much zucchini and eggplant is tossed with olive oil and cooks down to toasty little cubes that contrast nicely with the creamy barley. Aromatic spices and shallots are toasted in olive oil before the barley is tossed into the mix and it will have your kitchen smelling wonderful. This would be a great vegetarian entree, just substitute vegetable broth or water for the chicken broth. Not only does the salad taste great, barley is often touted as a “superfood”. Rich in fiber, niacin and thiamine it also helps lower blood cholesterol levels.
I did make some changes to the original recipe. I did not use extra virgin olive oil to toss with the eggplant and zucchini or in the barley preparation. I prefer to use extra virgin olive oil when it is not cooked and you are tasting the oil, as in a vinaigrette dressing. I substituted the more subtle shallots for scallions when cooking the barley. I chopped rather than sliced the red onion because I preferred the way it looked. I used a combination of cherry tomatoes from our garden, Sun Gold, Yellow and Sweet 100s. They are small enough that they only needed to be halved, not quartered as you would with a larger variety of cherry tomato. I eliminated the mint, mostly because my husband isn’t a fan, but also mint seems to permeate a cold salad and takes over the dish. The accompaniment to the salad was ricotta salata, in thin slices. Were you supposed to crumble it over the dish? I didn’t feel it was necessary, but some feta crumbled on top might be a nice addition.
Mediterranean Eggplant and Barley Salad
adapted from Gourmet magazine and the Epicurious website
Serves four as a main dish, eight as a side dish
Ingredients
For the vegetables
- 1 1/2 lb eggplant, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
- 1 1/2lb zucchini cut into 1/2 inch cubes
- 5T olive oil (more if needed)
- 3/4t salt
- 3/4t fresh ground pepper
For the barley
- 2T olive oil
- 3/4 c chopped shallot
- 1 1/2t ground cumin
- 1/2t ground coriander
- 1/4t cayenne pepper
- 1 1/4c pearl barley
- 1 14oz can reduced sodium chicken broth
- 3/4c water
For the dressing
- 2T lemon juice
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1/4t sugar
- 1/4t salt
- 1/4t pepper
- 3T extra-virgin olive oil
For final assembly of the salad
- 1/2 lb cherry tomatoes quartered or Sun Golds, Yellow and Sweet 100’s halved
- 1/3c Kalamata or other brine cured olives, pitted and halved
- 1/2c finely chopped red onion, soaked in ice water and drained if desired
- 1c chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
Directions
- Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 425F.
- In a large bowl toss eggplant and zucchini with 5T oil, 3/4t salt and 3/4t pepper. Spread zucchini and eggplant on two oiled large shallow baking pans.
- Roast vegetables in oven, stir occasionally and switch pan positions halfway through baking, until vegetables are golden brown and tender, 20-25 minutes total. Combine vegetables in one pan and cool, reserving other pan for cooling barley.
- Heat 2T oil in a 3-4 quart saucepan over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Cook the shallot, cumin coriander and cayenne, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add barley and cook until well coated with oil and spices, 2 minutes more. Add broth and water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until all the liquid is absorbed and barley is tender, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, 5 minutes. Transfer to the reserved shallow baking pan and spread barley to quickly cool, uncovered, to room temperature, about 20 minutes.
- Whisk together lemon juice, garlic, sugar and remaining 1/4t salt, 1/4t pepper and 3T olive oil in a large bowl. Add barley, roasted vegetables and remaining ingredients to bowl with dressing and toss until combined well.
Can be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Return to room temperature before serving.
Three colors of cherry tomatoes make this a very colorful salad.
Today’s pick of Globe, Asian Bride and Rosa Bianca eggplants.