Roasted Vegetables with Barley, Parsley and Feta

My husband is very good at surprising me

Last night he let me know at the very last minute that he had invited friends over for dinner

Of course I went into a mad panic

I barely had enough time to race down to the fishmongers and grab some fish

So I had to stretch the vegetables I had in the fridge to serve more than just the two of us

A quick scratch around, and this is what I came up with…

I added some barley, parsley and feta and whola!

 

It was a most delicious accompaniment for our panfried snapper and sautéed kale

I will definitely be making this again!

Roasted Vegetables with Barley, Parsley and Fetta

Serves 6-8

• 1 medium eggplant, cut into about 8 wedges
• 4 small fennel, cut into 8 wedges each (see notes below about preparing fennel)
• 1 medium or 2 small red onions, cut into wedges
• 1 medium red capsicum, cut into 2cm wide strips
• 4 roma tomatoes, cut in half
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 – 1 1/3 cups cooked barley*
• 1/2 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
• 1/4 cup fennel fronds, chopped
• 1/3 cup (85g) low fat fetta

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees
2. Place eggplant, fennel, red onion and capsicum in a ceramic or pyrex baking dish
3. Drizzle with olive oil, add garlic, sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss well to coat
4. Spread vegetables out evenly, then dot with tomatoes
5. 
6. Bake in oven for 40 minutes or until browned and vegetables have softened
7. Remove from oven, sprinkle barley evenly over the top, followed by parsley, fennel fronds, then crumble fetta over the top
8. 
9. Return to oven and bake for a further 30 minutes, until fetta has browned.  If fetta starts to brown too fast, turn oven down to 160-170 degrees

*Note:  To cook barley: You will need 1/2 cup pearl barley.  Rinse the barley and place in a saucepan with 2 cups of water. Bring to the boil and cook on medium heat for approximately 40 minutes or until soft. This will make about 1 1/3 cups of cooked barley.  (To cut down cooking time, barley can be soaked overnight in plenty of water). Do this while the rest of the vegetables are roasting away happily in the oven!

Fennel:  Cut off the green stalks from the fennel and trim the base. Reserve the fronds for garnish. Remove any tough or browned outer ‘leaves’. Wash off the dirt and cut each fennel in half, then slice into wedges.  Rinse again if quite dirty

Per Serve (6 serves):  633kJ or 151 calories; P 9g Fat 3g SFat 1g CHO 18g Fibre 9g

Barley is a highly nutritous and very versatile grain.  For nutritional information about barley see my barley risotto recipe