Roasted Eggplant Salad

When you want to serve up a dish that looks sensational as well as being nutritious it is hard to beat roasted eggplant, red onion and tomato salad with chickpeas, feta and spinach. You need a bit of preparation for this dish but believe me it is worth it!

Ingredients (for 4 people)

Cup of cooked chickpeas
Onion (with 6 cloves inserted)
1 carrot chopped
1 celery
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 fresh bay leaves
1 eggplant
2 red onions
4 large tomatoes
5 cloves garlic
Olive oil
balsamic vinegar
sea salt & black pepper
8 ozs fresh baby spinach
4 ozs feta


Method

Soak the chickpeas overnight in water , rinse well and place in a large casserole dish covered with water. Add the cloved onion, carrot, celery, a sprig of thyme and the bay leaf. Bring to the boil, skim residue and let bubble gently for around two hours under cover. Cube the eggplant, peel and section the red onion into eights and cut the tomatoes into halves. Place them on a roasting pan with the garlic and drizzle well with good quality olive oil. Add the remaining thyme and roast for 30 minutes at 200 degrees until everything is cooked through. Remove from the oven, add extra olive oil and balsamic vinegar to taste.
Serve the roasted vegetables on a large serving dish. Toss in the chickpeas with the spinach (which will wilt in the heat). Break up the feta and sprinkle over the roast vegetables and serve immediately.