roasted sweet pepper salad

roasted sweet pepper salad

There may be grey skies above but I want colour and romance at my kitchen table, which is why I served the simplest of pepper salads for lunch on Sunday with my lemon marinated roast lamb. So even if the weather was dire and miserable, at least I could bring a taste of the sun to our meal!


Skill level: Easy

ingredients:
a mixture of peppers - red, green, orange and yellow
fresh flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
dressing
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1-2 x garlic cloves, very finely chopped
salt and freshly ground pepper

directions:

1. Cut away as much of the pepper from its stem as possible. Cut the peppers into large pieces and de-seed.
2. Place under a medium to low pre-heated grill and grill until the skins begin to darken and blister and the flesh softens.
3. Once the peppers are cool enough to handle, peel off the skin and cut the pepper into strips.
4. Place the peppers in a serving bowl and make the dressing.
5. Combine all the dressing ingredients and season to taste.
6. Pour the dressing over the peppers and toss gently.
7. Sprinkle over a little chopped fresh parsley.
8. Best served at room temperature.

tips:

• Instead of grilling the peppers, you can easily roast them in the oven for about 30 minutes.
• To ease the skins off the peppers, place in a sealed plastic bag to cool. The peppers continue to steam in the residual cooking heat and it is easier to peel them.
• Other good things to add to the dressing include extra sharpness with a little extra lime or orange juice, pomegranate molasses or wine vinegar.
• Dried mint or dill or extra fresh coriander or parsley make a great addition to the dressing.
• Good spices to add are ground cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper or cinnamon. A small dollop of harissa paste is good too.