Sam's Kitchen

A hearty salad with so much earthy flavour. It was loved! I love everything and anything earthy, and the roasted farro has plenty of the earthy-nutty flavour to it.
I made this salad to take with us to celebrate the arrival of 2017 at a friends house in town. Unfortunately, my little munchkin stepped on a bee that afternoon while I was picking herbs in the garden. Later his little foot swelled up and was too sore for him to walk on, so we ended up cancelling going partying and stayed home instead. It was a long night I must say, and no, we didn’t party… Thankfully little munchkin’s foot recovered a few days later, lavender and frankincense oil have helped us survive.
For the salad, it ended up being a side dish to a late breakfast at another dear friends house where it received much praise and some fantastic reviews.

Ingredients

2 cups roasted farro
5 cups water
1 tsp sea salt

1 large eggplant, cubed (2-3 cm thick)
1 tbsp sea salt
1 large zucchini, sliced into half-moons (1.5 cm thick)
1 large red capsicum, deseeded and cut into strips or squares (2 cm wide)
2 tomatoes, quartered and deseeded (2 cm wide)
1 large brown onion, peeled and cut into wedges (2cm thick)
1-2 tbsp olive oil
Pinch of sea salt
1/2 tbsp cumin seeds
150g feta cheese, crumbled
1/3 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley
1/4 cup finely chopped mint
Freshly cracked pepper
Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

Method

Start preheating oven to 200C 20 minutes ( or as long as it takes for the oven to reach 200C) prior roasting the vegetables.

1. Rinse farro under running water for a few moments, then move into a pot, cover with 5 cups of water and add salt. Place the lid on and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for up to 40 minutes or until farro is cooked through and all the liquid is absorbed. Remove farro from heat and set aside to cool.
2. In the mean time while farro is cooking and cooling, prepare and roast the vegetables. In a colander mix 1 tbsp salt and cubed eggplant. Set aside for 20-30 minutes. Doing this will allow eggplant to “sweat,”  the salt will extract some of the bitterness eggplants tend to have and help it lose some of its sponginess. Rinse eggplant well under running tap water, then squeeze the excess water using your hands.
   Toss all the vegetables-eggplant, zucchini, capsicum, tomatoes and onion in olive oil.  Move to a baking tray, sprinkle with salt and cumin seeds. Insure vegetables are spread over the baking tray in one layer, use two trays if needed. Roast in preheated oven for 25 minutes or till lightly browned. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
3. In a large salad bowl toss farro and the vegetables, add chopped herbs and crumbled feta cheese. Season with cracked pepper, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and serve.