Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic Salad

Red peppers are delicious any way you eat them, but when they are char roasted they are exceptional. My cousin Solange is visiting us from Marseilles, France. Knowing that I am both gluten free and a vegetarian, she asked if you could make a dish that she thought I would enjoy.

I took pictures while she prepared what she calls, " cooked salad".. Since that term conjures up a strange image in my mind, I renamed her recipe and called it, " Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic Salad" . Although I still kept the word salad in the title, it's really more of a spread, dip , or topping for rice.

The fragrance of this aromatic recipe cooking is beyond words, and the taste of this recipe is divine. It's a middle Eastern favorite.. I will eat it over rice with Moroccan carrot salad and Turkish eggplant salad.

Ingredients:
3 large red bell peppers halved and seeded
3 cloves of garlic, pressed
1 8 ounce can of diced tomatoes or 4 tomatoes diced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp hot paprika or hot pepper flakes
1/4 cup olive oil

How to make the recipe:
Place halved red peppers on a cookie sheet ( hollow part down)
Grill or broil until the tops char
Remove from oven, cool and then peel off skin
Dice peppers and set aside.

In a medium skillet, sauté garlic on a very low flame in the olive oil ( do not burn) , add tomatoes and cook for about 10 minutes on low. Add sugar, salt, and pepper flakes and diced peeled red peppers. Continue to sauté on a very low flame for about 45 minutes until liquid is absorbed.
Turn off heat and allow to cool.

Eat as a spread with gluten free crackers or crudite, or serve over rice or quinoa.