Roast vegetable salad with quinoa

This recipe evolved from Roasted Vegetable Couscous Salad in Delia Smith’s Summer Collection, a book which was a sensation when it was published in 1993. Full of vibrant colours and flavours, the recipes seemed fresher than the rather traditional dishes of Delia’s previous books. Recipes like Piedmont Roasted Peppers, Salmon with Avocado and Crème Fraîche sauce and Oven-roast Ratatouille instantly became part of my regular repertoire.

As you can see from the state of the page, I have made this recipe a lot! Although the harissa-style dressing is nice, I have more often used a mustard or basalmic dressing instead, both of which work well. These days I am not so fond of couscous, so I thought I’d try it with quinoa instead, and added chick peas instead of goat’s cheese, to make a satisfying vegan salad. As tahini goes so well with chick peas, I thought I’d try a tahini dressing, and it went really well with both the vegetables and the chick peas. Feel free to revet to using couscous and goats cheese if you prefer, but however you make it, it is a perfect dish for this lovely summer weather. If it’s really hot, you can roast the vegetables in the cool of the evening or early morning and then quickly assemble it for a lazy lunch. And it looks so summery served in a large bowl, for everyone to serve themselves.

1 aubergine
2 courgettes
2 red or yellow peppers
1 large or 2 small red onions
4 large tomatoes (or equivalent in cherry tomatoes)
4 cloves garlic
Olive oil
120g quinoa
1 can chick peas
1 lemon (optional)
mixed salad leaves
2 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp warm water
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
handful of flat-leaf parsley

Start by heating the oven to 200 C Fan/Gas 7. Peel the onion(s), cut in half and the. Each piece into 4-6 wedges. Put into a roasting tin large enough to take all the vegetables.  Trim the top and bottom of the courgettes, slice them in half lengthwise (unless they are small, in which case you may need a couple more) and then slice diagonally into chunks. Add to the tin. Cut the stem off the aubergine, cut it in half lengthwise, each half into three wedges and then across into chunks. Add to the pan, season and drizzle the whole lot with some olive oil.

By now the oven should be up to temperature, so put the tray into the oven and set the pinger for 10 minutes while you prepare the peppers and tomatoes. Core and desired the peppers and cut into small chunks. Delia skins the tomatoes, which is an improvement, though I often don’t get round to it. Her recipe has the instructions. If using large tomatoes cut each into 6 or 8 pieces. Squash the garlic cloves with the side of the knife.

When the timer goes add the peppers and garlic to the roasting tin, giving everything a good stir. Set the timer for a further 10 minutes. Wash the salad if necessary. Measure the quinoa and rinse it under running water. Tip it into a pan, add 360ml of cold water, bring to a simmer and cook for 12-15 minutes until each little seed has unfurled like a comma. When the 10 minutes is up, stir the vegetables again and add the tomatoes for a final 10 minutes. I do this because I prefer the tomatoes to be soft and juicy – you can of course add them earlier if you prefer them more roasted.

Take the vegetables out of the oven and allow to cool a little – I think this salad tastes best when the grain and vegetables are still lukewarm (definitely not fridge cold, so if you are cooking this ahead, do get the vegetables out of the fridge an hour ahead so they can come up to room temperature).

When the quinoa is cooked I usually turn off the heat and let it sit to dry in the pan on the warm hot plate for a few minutes, before tipping it into a sieve to cool.

Drain and rinse the chick peas and mix with the quinoa in a large serving dish. I added some pieces of lemon to the quinoa, following a favourite Ottolenghi recipe. It does make the salad quite sharp, which I like. If you want to do likewise, cut off the top and bottom of the lemon, then stand it on a board and carefully cut away the peel and white pith using a sharp knife (preferably serrated). Then cut between the membranes to release the individual segments of lemon, discarding any pips as you go. Chop the parsley and mix it in.

Drizzle over a little of the dressing, then spoon over the still warm vegetables. Top with the salad leaves, drizzle over more of the dressing and serve with the rest of the desssing on the side.