Roasted peppers and eggplant salad
Roasted peppers and eggplant salad that you can't stop nibbling on. A simple yet delicious salad with most of the work done passively in the oven.
When we lived in Israel, we used to sleep part of the weekends at Nir's parents' house. Gathering of the whole family together, every child returns to his childhood room, plus the spouses and grandchildren. Nir's mother made all the things we all love, but the thing I remember the most is the multitude of salads she would prepare. At Friday dinner there was a stunning selection of maztes, but before the meal, and also on Saturday morning, the salads would repeatedly come out of the fridge, one eating tahini with challah one eating hummus and me with this spicy pepper salad. Takes a bite, burnt from the spiciness, but can't help but take the next bite. My breakfast was this salad and also dinner before going home: pita with pepper salad and tahini. More than two years since we relocated to California, and we had the privilege of eating all of Anati's delicacies, at a Friday dinner with a long table mixed with my family and Nir's family, trying to capture more and more time together before flying back. So while I'm dreaming of the visit to Israel and the next meeting with the whole family, this salad was added to our home table.
Ingredients:
Five red peppers
Two or three hot peppers, according to the degree of spiciness you like (you can also without), note that there are peppers that lose their spiciness when cooked, I used Serrano so as not to be disappointed that the kick of the spiciness disappeared for me.
eggplant
Two cloves of garlic
Two tablespoons of olive oil
Half a squeezed lemon
Half a teaspoon of salt
How to make it:
Cut the eggplant in half and put it together with the peppers in a preheated oven: 180 degrees Celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit) for about 40 minutes, there is no need to oil the vegetables.
The next step depends on the oven, so before you take it out, make sure that the vegetables got a brown coat, and the eggplant is soft, you may need a few more minutes for the eggplant after the peppers have already come out.
Here comes a cute trick: after the peppers have come out of the oven and cooled for a minute or two, put them in a closed bag (or a pyrex with a closed lid) for ten minutes, when we open it the skin separates from the peppers easily.
Peel the peppers and transfer to a food processor.
Remove the contents of the eggplant with a spoon (without the skin), and transfer to a food processor.
Add two cloves of garlic, juice of half a lemon, two tablespoons of olive oil and a teaspoon of salt.
Blend everything in pulses, so the texture is a chunky spread and enjoy with sandwiches or as an addition to rice.
