Sesame Roasted Cauliflower, Eggplant, and Capsicum in Creamy Sweet Soy Dressing

(serves 4-6)

This is a bit of a fusion salad, well, it's mostly asian but goats cheese is such a wonderful compliment to roasted capsicum, i thought i may as well throw it in and it turned out quite well! This sweet soy-jap mayo dressing is a deliciously sticky combination and is my asian alternative to caramelised balsamic. You can really use it for any salad, but i think it goes especially well with the roasted caps!

Prep time: 10 min
Cooking time: 1 hr

Ingredients:
1 Cauliflower
1 Eggplant
3 red Capsicum
300g mix lettuce leaves
50-60g Goats cheese (optional)
3-4 T toasted Sesame seeds
Soy sauce
Sesame oil

Dressing:
2 T Sweet soy sauce (Kecap manis)
1 T Jap mayo
1/2 T Seeded mustard
1 T Olive oil
1/2 T Sesame oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C.
2. Cut the cauliflower into bite-size florets and dress in soy sauce, sesame oil and 1 T sesame seeds. Put in the oven for 10-15 minutes, then toss them and continue roasting for another 10-15 minutes until cooked and just crispy.

3. Meanwhile, cut the eggplant into short thin strips (approx 8cm x 2cm x 0.5cm). Dress in sesame oil, olive oil and 1 T sesame seeds. 
4. Heat a frypan with 1 T olive oil and pan-fry the eggplant strips in batches on medium heat until soft. Once cooked, remove from the pan and place on a paper towel to drain any excess oil.
NB. You will need to do this in batches as they need heat on the whole surface area to cook evenly. Don't try to cook on high heat otherwise it'll burn quickly!
5. Deseed and cut the capsicums in half. Place it skin-side up and grill it under high heat until it's mostly black and bubbly. Remove and place into a plastic container.
NB. This will steam up in the plastic container and will make it easier to strip the skin off.
6. Wash and dry the lettuce leaves.
7. Prepare the dressing by mixing sweet soy, jap mayo, seeded mustard, olive oil, sesame oil and lemon juice. 
8. In a large salad bowl, toss the lettuce leaves in half the dressing, then add in the cauliflower, eggplant, capsicum and and add as much dressing as you desire.
9. Serve with the small cubes of goats cheese on top (optional) and a sprinkle of sesame seeds!