Thursday, 30 October 2014

Roasted Green Bell Peppers With Tomatoes And Olives


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Roasted Green Bell Peppers With Tomatoes And Olives
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Grilling the green peppers and onions under the broiler imparts a smokiness and savouriness to the dish that can't be achieved if it was just simply sauteed. 
This dish is delicious. Expect it to tastes like slightly charred smoky green peppers mixed with the salty savouriness of the olives and some tartness from the tomatoes.

 I serve it as part of a meze or a pre-dinner dip. I could eat a lot of this with some soft flat bread, tortilla chips, grilled fish, pasta or on its own. If vegetables always cooked this tasty, I might consider becoming a vegetarian. No, impossible. I love my bacon.

 There is still bite to this chunky dip as the vegetables are not overcooked and the flavours improve with keeping. It is a good idea to make this the day before a party so it frees you somewhat from the kitchen on party day itself. I like that.
ROASTED GREEN BELL PEPPERS WITH TOMATOES AND OLIVES
Prep:
10 minutes

Cook:

30 minutes grill + 20 minutes stove top

Inactive:

10 minutes for grilled vegetables to cool

Level:

Easy

Makes:

3 cups

Oven Temperature:

-

Can recipe be doubled?

Yes

Make ahead?

Up to 2 days ahead, refrigerated.
Ingredients

15.8 oz (450 g) green bell peppers
8 oz (225 g) onions with skins (about 2 medium size)
4 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
1 can of 14.5 oz (411 g) diced tomatoes
2 Tablespoons sliced green olives
1 to 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

 Dried spices

 1/4 teaspoon cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon paprika/chilli powder
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon salt

Method
Line a baking tray with aluminium foil. Place this under the oven rack you will be setting your vegetables on for grilling. Any juices that might drip from the vegetables will be caught on the aluminium lined tray, saving you some washing up.

Turn on your broiler. Place the whole green bell peppers and the onions (with skins left on) directly on the oven rack. The top of your vegetables should be between 1" to 1 and 1/2" (2.5 cm to 3.8 cm) away from the heating element above. 
Depending on the heat from your broiler, it should take 5 to 10 minutes for each side of the bell peppers and onions to get charred. Rotate the vegetables and watch that they don't burn. You will be peeling off the black outer skins when they are done so do not be afraid to get them nicely charred.

Place the charred bell peppers in a vessel, cover tightly with plastic wrap and cool. Alternatively, you could seal them in a heavy duty plastic bag or a plastic container with a lid.

Leave the charred onions to cool on its own.
When the bell peppers are cool enough to handle, peel off the charred skins and remove as much seeds as you can. Save any juices from the bell peppers. Dice the bell peppers and add any juices to it. Set aside.
Do the same for the charred onions.
Heat up the olive oil on medium high heat. Fry the garlic for a minute or until it smells aromatic. Add the tomatoes and fry for 10 minutes or until most of the tomato liquid has evaporated and the oil separates. Take a look at my frying pan of tomatoes. 

Add the dried spices and the diced onions. Fry 5 to 10 minutes until the onions softens a little. Add the bell peppers stir to mix and warm through. Finally add the sliced olives. Stir. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Remove from the burner and transfer to a serving dish. Drizzle with the extra virgin olive oil.

Tips
  • Put this over spaghetti or penne, sprinkle over some grated parmesan and eat. If you like it with more of a sauce, add another can of diced tomatoes together with the first can and adjust your seasonings. If the Roasted Bell Peppers With Tomatoes And Olives are leftover from the day before (which I always look forward to), I add some tomato passata (cooked and strained tomatoes that usually comes in tall glass bottles) and simply heat through before eating.
  • This dish goes well with a dish of Labneh - Lebanese Drained Yogurt (there is a picture below of it on my meze table). Labneh has a taste and texture similar to cream cheese. A simple vegetarian meal would be a plate of Roasted Bell Peppers With Tomatoes And Olives with a small side of Labneh lightly drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. In fact, that was what I had for lunch. It all went down too quickly in my tummy for me to take a picture.
WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                                 
Moroccan inspired round bread loaves. They are 2 different yet similar loaves. One is baked with spelt flour and the other with stone ground whole wheat flour. Which is which?

Find out in my upcoming post for the recipe that baked these soft loaves.

To recap, this post is part of my series on Meze, A Selection of Wonderful Little Bites. With the festive season fast approaching, it is time to start thinking about some party food for those year-end parties. 

Year-end party menus are often more elaborate and require more time to prepare. Invariably there will be more dinner guests to feed. You might even find that you have to host that extra one, two or three parties. More than a little effort is probably required of you to decorate your house and dining table for the festive season. 

This is the time when I appreciate more than ever those recipes that are quick and easy but I am especially grateful for recipes that can be prepared in advance. Something that you might want to consider is to host a party where you serve a selection of meze (a selection of small dishes). A lot of the work can be done ahead. Take a look at my post on  Meze, A Selection of Wonderful Little Bites to find out more.
My recent meze party inspired my series on 'little bites' for your upcoming year-end parties. 
First row:

Zaalouk - Moroccan Roasted Eggplants and Tomatoes; Kabis - Lebanese Pickled Turnips & Beets; Moroccan inspired Radish, Bell Peppers and Mint Salad; Flash Fried Sweet Mini Bell Peppers.

Second row:

Greek inspired Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta; Hummus with Spiced Angus Beef Slices; Beef Kafta -  Lebanese inspired Meatballs.

Third row:

Labneh - Lebanese Drained Yogurt Drizzled With Extra Virgin Olive Oil And Clover Honey; Moroccan inspired Roasted Green Bell Peppers and Tomatoes With Olives; Fresh Figs With Peppered Ricotta. 
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