Roasted Red Pepper Salad

As I have mentioned before, my mother is a fabulous and inventive cook. She is creative, healthy, and resourceful. One of my favorite recipes of hers is a roasted red pepper salad. Depending on the season and the selection of fresh fruit and herbs, it can be made with pears, apples, nectarines, or peaches. It is great with any combination of the above!

This Roasted Red Pepper-Pear salad is popular in early autumn in southern Turkey and Northern Cyprus.  The recipe is adapted from the cookbook by Ghillie Basan, Turkish Cooking, 1997 (St. Martin’s Press).

Ingredients

Red pepper and pear -- what a colorful combination!

Ingredients:

* 2 green or red bell peppers–can be fresh if you want to roast them–otherwise you can get pre-roasted peppers
* 2 large ripe peaches, nectarines, pears or apples
* 2 tablespoons of olive oil
* 2 tablespoons of lemon or pomegranate juice
* A few mint and/or dill leaves, chopped and some salt and black pepper

Directions:

* First, you need to roast the red peppers. Obviously, you can buy roasted red peppers in any gourmet store or in a can, but fresh is always best.

Place the red peppers on an oiled pain (with olive oil) and lightly brush the red peppers with olive oil.

* To roast the peppers, cut them in half, and remove the stem, seeds, and pits.  Then, either grill the peppers over a grill (directly on a gas flame), or roast them in the oven on broil setting.  Either way, when the skin bubbles up and some brown starts to appear, remove the peppers and place them in a paper bag to sweat for 2-3 minutes.  Then peel off the skin under a running tap.  Cut the peppers into slices.

After oven

After the peppers have been in the oven for 15-20 minutes, they should look soft and juicy. At this point, you put them in a paper bag to let them sweat.

Brown bag

* Cut the fruit, dill and peppers into similar sizes.

Dill and pear

Pears and dill, pre-peppers.

* Mix the dressing, season and pour over the peppers and fruit.  Toss and serve.

Dressing

The dressing is simple and refreshing-- lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Salad

The rainbow salad!

VOILA! A great side dish for any meal! Tonight, we are eating it with turkey/zucchini meatloaf and a simple green mixed salad.

Tasty!

Tasty!

Have a great weekend!

— AYN, a.k.a., The Josie Girl


Josie Girl

7 Comments

  1. This looks great! Very colorful and LOVE mixing fruit and veggies (and sweet and sour) in salads. Will give it a shot.. TY!!!!!!

    • Colorful food always seems more appealing and healthy to me….enjoy this recipe!

    • Of course! Would love to hear what you think about the recipe. I also love fruit and veggies together.

  2. sounds scrumptious!!! I love your recipes… be sure to let us know if you come out with a cook book.
    Have a wonderful weekend!!!

      • Ha. Your recipes do look yummy and I love your mom’s cooking! I just made her eggplant this week. But the idea of you writing a cookbook does make me chuckle! Maybe someday. 🙂

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