Quinoa Salad with Roasted Vegetables and Pomegranate Vinaigrette

I hadn't cooked quinoa in awhile and, as you know, love pomegranates.  I used a few recipes from the blog Closet Cooking as inspiration.  I made a big batch of this on Monday night which we ate as a side all week!

I also made my lentil and sausage soup which was even better than I had remembered.  I was intent on having food prepared for the whole week and we didn't have to eat out once (except for the sushi dinner we chose to have on Wednesday!)

QUINOA SALAD WITH ROASTED VEGETABLES AND POMEGRANATE VINAIGRETTE

1 eggplant
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 bulb fennel
2 red peppers
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
1/4 cup walnuts
3 oz (or so) feta
1 cup quinoa
1/4 cup pomegranate vinaigrette

Preheat the oven to 400.

Cut up the eggplant into cubes, salt generously and set aside in a colander to drain or about 20 minutes (by salting and draining the eggplant, you remove some of the bitter taste eggplant can have)

Stick the red peppers on a baking sheet lined with tin foil.  But in the oven under the broiler and turn every few minutes until all sides are blackened.  Take our, put in a covered bowl and let sit until the peppers have cooled enough to handle and the skins peel off easily.  Chop the peppers into 1 inch pieces.

Rinse and pat dry the eggplant.  Put in a baking dish and toss with some olive oil and the cumin, paprika and cinnamon.

Cut the fennel into slices, put the slices in another baking dish and toss with a little olive oil.

Roast the vegetables in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

In the meantime cook the quinoa according to the directions on the package.

But the quinoa in a bowl.  Add the roasted eggplant, fennel, red peppers, walnuts, pomegranate seeds and feta and drizzle with the pomegranate vinaigrette.

I found that this salad was fine the night I made it but incredible the several days following!  J ate his room temperature, I heated mine up in the microwave before eating.  Delicious!