This is my ideal moving from summer into fall salad. It’s full of abundant harvest flavors and textures, wrapped in zingy herbs and seasonings. The fresh herbs can flex to help you use up whatever you have a lot of. It comes together in under a half hour and is nice served at room temperature. I also really love it the next day as well once the eggplant has had time to really soaks up all the spices.

This salad is inspired by my friend and once upon a time co-worker Maggie. When we worked together, she would sometimes take me on a food adventure, like driving to Staten Island for Indonesian food. Often, our excursions would line up with a round of funding for our research coming to an end, with no clear guarantee of being able to continue our work on the horizon. Once, we were on the ferry to Far Rockaway a day or two before our jobs were ending, when we got word that we’d received funding for another four years. When we got to Far Rockaway, we walked on the boardwalk (obviously) and then went to an Uzbek restaurant that Maggie knew about called Uma’s. We had a salad there that has taken me back to Far Rockaway many, many, many times since. It was roasted eggplant with raw tomatoes, so many fresh herbs and some sort of special white cheese that they claim is feta but is not like any other feta, Everyone should go to Uma’s and order this salad (and the Korean carrots). If Far Rockaway is not accessible to you, make this salad which is inspired by Uma’s salad. It’s a salad to eat when something goes right in uncertain times. It’s a salad to eat when you are feeling grateful for opportunities to do deep work, feed your curiosity and work with smart, passionate, interesting people. It’s a salad to make if you are feeling grateful for a good farmeshare haul that gives you delicata squash, eggplants and ripe tomatoes.

Ingredients

• 2 Asian Eggplants (about 12 oz)
• 1 Small Delicata Squash (about12 oz)
• 2-3 Tb olive oil, plus more to drizzle at the end
• salt & pepper
• 1 medium ripe tomato or a handful of cherry tomatoes (About 8oz)
• 2 teaspoons sumac
• 1 teaspoon whole cumin seed , toasted and ground
• 3/4 cup total fresh herbs. I like chives, dill and parsley but you could swap any of those for mint or cilantro if that is what you have.
• Juice of 1 lemon, seeds strained out
• Crumbled feta cheese (2-4 oz)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Slice the delicata squash in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds. Cut in half again lengthwise and then slice into half inch peices.
3. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise and, cut each half lengthwise again and slice into half inch pieces.
4. On a large sheet pan, toss the delicata squash and eggplant pieces with 2-3 Tablespoons of olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast the vegetables for 20 minutes, shaking the pan half way through.
5. Meanwhile, cut the tomatoes into chunks about the size of the eggplant and delicata squash. You can also prep the herbs and toast and grind the cumin, if you have not already done so.
6. When the vegetables are roasted, toss them with the sumac, toasted ground cumin, most of the fresh herbs, tomato and lemon juice. Taste and adjust salt, pepper and lemon juice as needed.
7. Serve on a platter drizzled with more oil and sprinkled with feta and the rest of the fresh herbs.