Roasted Aubergine & Millet Salad with Hot Chickpeas and Feta

Aubergine often gets a bad rep for its bitter taste and being tricky to cook with. It is true that when it is not cooked right it does taste pretty horrible. But when all stars align and you cook your aubergine perfectly, the buttery soft inside and slightly burnt tones are more pleasurable than all the vegetables at a farmer's market combined. Cooking aubergine is actually not that tricky, approximately 97% of all bad tasting aubergines are simply undercooked. So when I roast aubergine I make sure to really crank up the heat and roast it until it looks black-ish on the outside and is super tender and buttery soft inside. I then toss it in a marinade or vinaigrette to let it soak up flavor.

In this salad I have combined roasted aubergine with hot chickpeas and scorched feta cheese – all roasted on the same tray! I pair the warm ingredients with thinly sliced fennel, sweet grapes, colorful cherry tomatoes, leafy greens and a fluffy millet mix that I toss in pesto vinaigrette. It is truly delicious with a mix of warm and cold ingredients and a wide array of textures. 

• 2 aubergines / eggplants
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 x 300 g / 10 oz package Zeta Millet Mix
• 1/2 fennel
• 2 handfuls baby kale or baby spinach
• 100 g / 1 cup mixed cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 handful red grapes, sliced
• 1 bag / tin cooked chickpeas
• 150 g / 5 oz feta cheese
• 1/2 tsp chili flakes
• a handful green olives