{"id":9943,"date":"2015-09-22T05:00:53","date_gmt":"2015-09-22T10:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/?p=9943"},"modified":"2015-09-21T11:37:10","modified_gmt":"2015-09-21T16:37:10","slug":"roasted-eggplant-quinoa-feta-salad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/?p=9943","title":{"rendered":"Roasted Eggplant, Quinoa, &#038; Feta Salad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"DSC_0833\" href=\"http:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/761\/21601704815_c4d6434046_s.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"DSC_0833\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/761\/21601704815_6ad26ab971_h.jpg\" alt=\"DSC_0833\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1143\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s been so long since I&#8217;ve posted a recipe here, and the reason is tedium. I&#8217;ve been relying on Andrew so often to grill fish or chicken, then toss that on a salad with whatever we can find in the garden or refrigerator. That, or lentils and rice, or a roasted chicken with roasted vegetables&#8230; the truth is, we eat a lot of repeat meals around here and I&#8217;ve shared so many of those recipes already!<\/p>\n<p>But lately I&#8217;ve been craving some more variety, especially since the boys have been scarfing down salads and vegetables more frequently and with much less complaining (finally! finally! FINALLY!). We have a rule that they must eat at least a bite of everything on their plates, but lately they&#8217;ve been eating <em>all<\/em> of their veggies. They love <a href=\"http:\/\/cupofjo.com\/2013\/05\/the-best-kale-caesar-salad-youll-ever-have\/\" target=\"_blank\">this kale caesar salad<\/a> with plenty of parmesan cheese, or broccoli with Havarti garlic cheese sauce. After two years of gentle nudging (mixed with a few bribes) they&#8217;re finally eating tomatoes. We&#8217;re getting there, at least by exposing them to a variety of flavors and textures.<\/p>\n<p>One texture they don&#8217;t seem to care for is that of roasted eggplant, and I get that. But that doesn&#8217;t stop me from trying! This time, I wanted a nourishing salad that incorporated much of what was looking good in our garden: eggplant, cherry tomatoes, and plenty of herbs (here, parsley and mint). We also always keep quinoa in the house, and I found some pistachios, so in they went! I thought all these things might somehow make a really good meal&#8230; I love how it turned out, and hope you do too!<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"DSC_0835\" href=\"http:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/643\/20978854014_d1b5237fba_s.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"DSC_0835\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/643\/20978854014_549b010dac_h.jpg\" alt=\"DSC_0835\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1143\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Roasted Eggplant, Quinoa, &amp; Feta Salad<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1 large (or 2 small) eggplant, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 cup pistachios, shelled &amp; chopped roughly<\/li>\n<li>1 cup quinoa<\/li>\n<li>1 1\/2 cups vegetable broth or water<\/li>\n<li>3 Tbsp chopped flat parsley<\/li>\n<li>3 Tbsp chopped fresh mint<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 cup sheep&#8217;s milk feta, crumbled<\/li>\n<li>2 Tbsp sea salt (for eggplant)<\/li>\n<li>2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil<\/li>\n<li>5 cloves garlic, minced<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 lemon, squeezed<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Start by peeling and cubing the eggplant. Sprinkle with a generous amount of sea or kosher salt and toss to coat. Place in a colander so the eggplant releases some of its water (this will prevent some of the mushiness during the baking process). I let mine sit for a couple of hours while I did other things, including prepping the rest of the salad. After at least 20 minutes, gently squeeze or pat the eggplant with a few paper towels to absorb moisture. Preheat oven to 375, then toss eggplant with olive oil and spread out in an even layer over a baking sheet or shallow pan. Cook for 15 minutes, then add minced garlic, toss, and return to oven for another 5 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Rinse quinoa in a sieve, then add to saucepan with broth (or water, if using). Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes, or until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Set aside to cool.<\/p>\n<p>Chop the herbs and cherry tomatoes and toss with lemon juice and feta in a mixing bowl. Add eggplant and quinoa once it has cooled off, and sprinkle pistachios on top. Serve at room temperature or cold, and enjoy! I know I&#8217;ll be reaching for this for a quick lunch this week, and I&#8217;m willing to bet it will be great on a bed of greens.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"DSC_0836\" href=\"http:\/\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5784\/21414716989_86830eac33_s.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"DSC_0836\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5784\/21414716989_0ce6dc960b_h.jpg\" alt=\"DSC_0836\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1143\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been so long since I&#8217;ve posted a recipe here, and the reason is tedium. I&#8217;ve been relying on Andrew so often to grill fish or chicken, then toss that on a salad with whatever we can find in the garden or refrigerator. That, or lentils and rice, or a roasted chicken with roasted vegetables&#8230; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/?p=9943\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Roasted Eggplant, Quinoa, &#038; Feta Salad&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87,99],"tags":[173,103,171],"class_list":["post-9943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-green-living","tag-green-living","tag-recipes","tag-yummy-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9943"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9969,"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9943\/revisions\/9969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}