2 grilled pepper salads سلطات بالفلفل المشوي

Since I was going to grill some pepper, I made these 2 recipes, the first I ate at a Spanish lady’s house decades ago, as I wasn't invited but came with someone, she disdainfully gave me the recipe of this divine dish but not a name to it. You can experiment with extra ingredients like lemon juice, garlic or whatever, I add cider or red grape vinegar to the original recipe.

Spanish grilled salad

Ingredients:

2 medium aubergines

2 green peppers

Olive oil

Salt

Vinegar (optional)

Directions:

Wash aubergines and slash with a knife in 2 places, put in an oven dish in a medium hot oven  and roast for about an hour till tender.

Cut pepper in pieces. remove pith and seeds and put under a hot grill with the skin side facing the heat till skin is blackened and blistered and pepper is soft. Keep the pieces in a bowl covered with clingfilm. Start peeling them immediately.

Remove aubergine flesh from the skin, discard seed pods, sprinkle with salt and leave to drain in a colander.

Shred aubergine with a fork and put in a bowl, cut peppers in to long thin slices and mix in, adjust salt and dress with oil and vinegar to taste.

Essouira salad

This is a Moroccan salad normally served with grilled fish.

 Ingredients:

2 large tomatoes skinned

1 green pepper

½ of a preserved lemon

1 small clove garlic minced

A pinch of cumin

1 ½ tbs Argane oil or olive oil

1 tbs lemon preserving liquid or vinegar

Directions:

Remove pith and seeds from pepper and put under a hot grill skin side up till skin is charred and blistered, put pieces in a covered bowl and proceed to remove the skin.

Cut pepper into small cubes, remove the seeds from the skinned tomatoes and cut into small cubes.

Wash the lemon in water. Discard the inside and chop the skin into tiny cubes .

Mix vegetables and lemon pieces.

Before serving remove excess liquid from salad. Sprinkle with a little cumin and dress with oil and lemon liquid or vinegar, if using vinegar you may need to add a little salt.