Bell peppers. In Canada, we tend to use them in the same few dishes, over and over again.
Steaks, salads, stir-fries and maybe a stuffed pepper now and again. That’s really the extent of many folks’ pepper palate.
Many of us know intuitively that bell peppers belong in these dishes, but few have ventured beyond the veil. I’ll let you in on a little secret, there are so many other ways to prepare these little guys.
Today’s column is about how amazing roasted bell peppers are. Roasting is a technique I’ve been using for years and I keep coming back to it.
Roasted peppers are relatively inexpensive and accessible, and they won’t eat up too much of your study time, taking no more than an hour to prepare.
Roasted peppers are one of the most versatile ingredients you can have in your kitchen. I often prepare these on a Sunday and use them throughout the week. Chicken sandwiches, pasta sauces and even your morning eggs will love the addition of these peppers.
What is roasting?
Bell peppers lend a vegetal sweetness to the dishes they adorn. By roasting them, we can enhance their sweet flavour while adding a subtle smokey dimension. The goal of roasting them is to coax out as much flavour from the raw ingredients as we can, usually their natural sweetness.
We also want to encourage the development of colour, that caramel golden-brown blush we all crave. Without getting too technical, we’re trying to achieve a chemical phenomenon called the Maillard reaction.
I won’t get too deep into the science of it; all you need to remember is Maillard = sweet peppery goodness.
Maillard is unlocked at 300 F, so we need to turn our oven at least that high, normally even higher to make the process faster. To encourage browning, we’ll usually toss our roasting vegetables in some kind of fat to encourage that rich caramel colour.
Any kind of bell pepper will do, but I usually opt for red, orange or yellow. Green ones don’t have the same natural sweetness, so they don’t benefit as much from roasting.
Bell peppers are relatively budget-friendly. You can get a sleeve of three for between $5-7 at the grocery store and can also find “imperfect” peppers at a discount. These are ideal for our purposes. Since we’re roasting them, we don’t care too much about their aesthetics.
How to roast the peppers
Once you’ve bought your peppers, how should you go about roasting them?
First, wash your peppers, cut them into quarters and remove the stem, seeds and white membrane that lines the inside of their flesh.
Place your cut peppers in a bowl. Add three tablespoons of olive oil and two teaspoons of salt. With your hands, coat the peppers with the oil and salt.
On a baking sheet or cookie tray, place a sheet of aluminum foil. Lay your peppers on top. We don’t want to crowd the pan, so the pieces should be about a half-inch apart.
In an oven preheated to 450 F, roast the peppers for 20-25 minutes. Flip them over about halfway through the roasting time. When the skins of the peppers are mostly browned, remove the peppers from the oven.
If the skin isn’t quite dark enough, turn your oven to broil. Char the peppers for one to two minutes on each side. Don’t leave the oven unattended for this! The broiler usually runs at 500 F. Your peppers will burn if you’re not paying attention.
Once the peppers are sufficiently blackened, turn the oven off. Remove the peppers from the oven and place them in a sealable container. Close the lid, and let them steam for 15 minutes. Don’t skip this step; it makes peeling the skins so much easier.
Once the time is up, remove the peppers from the bag. Use a paring knife to make an incision along the middle of the pepper pieces. Using your hands, peel away the skins and discard them, and you’re done!
These smokey-sweet roasted peppers lend great flavour to sandwiches, pasta sauces, soups or stews. They’re also right at home on a charcuterie board, if you’re feeling fancy.
Store the peppers in a sealed container in the fridge; they’ll keep for up to a week.
Roasting is one of the best techniques to get the most flavour out of your veggies. I hope you enjoyed learning about it. You can roast other veggies, too—I highly encourage experimentation.
See you next issue for another cooking gem!
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