A weeknight dinner can be the bane of a busy person’s existence. Whether you’ve just had a hard day at work, or helped your kids with their homework while juggling 3 loads of laundry, or if you’ve heard ‘what’s for dinner’ for the 100th time and you just can’t come up with an answer, it’s always good to have a few quick dinner ideas to fall back on.
Peppers, a.k.a Capsicum are a very versatile vegetable to have in your fridge for such a day. They look like little lanterns in all their pretty colors and they taste fantastic, particularly the yellow and red ones. Raw they’re crunchy, sweet, juicy and a bit like eating sunlight. Cooked, they transform into so many kinds of awesome. They’re great in salads, stir-frys, tomato-based pasta sauces, in a dressed-up mac-n-cheese, with eggs, in eggs, roasted, in sandwiches and oh plenty more.
One of our favorite things to do with them is to make a sort of Peperonata which is a capsicum stew that can be almost jam-like and brings loads of flavor when added to any number of things to make for great little quick dinner ideas:
- On toast topped with a fried egg
- Cooked with a little garlic and an additional splash of extra virgin olive oil, it’s great with some al-dente spaghetti
- With a little turmeric and chili powder cooked along with it, mashed up paneer stirred through it
- A little bacon, ham or other deli meat browned and added to the mix – the possibilities are endless.
Peperonata
Ingredients
2 large Onions, chopped or sliced, however you like.
2 Bell peppers, red or yellow or both, diced or sliced, depending on what you did with the onions
2-3 tbs Olive oil
A pinch of Dried oregano, Dried basil and Dried rosemary
Or a couple of healthy pinches of any dried herb mix you like.
Salt to season.
Directions
Sauté the onions till they start to turn a pretty yellow-gold. Throw in the bell peppers. You probably want to season it with some salt at this stage. Add the dried herbs. What you want is for the peppers to slowly cook down a bit and turn really tender so the heat’s got to be quite low. You’re cooking for about 25-30 mins, stirring a few times. When you’ve got the peppers as tender as you like them, you’re done. You could eat this hot or cold, in any of the ways mentioned here or any other way you like really.
Go crazy with this and make your own peperonata. It’ll be great to know what you do with your versions.
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I like this recipe…simple and short…i threw in cottage cheese in it and loved the added flavor and fullness!