Harlequin Peppers

October 31, 2001

This week the 5+ A Day campaign is running in New Zealand, reminding us to eat at least five servings of vegetables and fruit a day. A serving is a handful and is relative to age and size.

At this time of the southern year, there are plenty of wonderful spring vegetables around making it a relatively easy task to keep the fresh fruit and vegetable levels up.

I visited one of the local produce markets a couple of days ago and they had generous bags of assorted coloured peppers at a very reasonable price, so I bought a supply for today's dish.

While a green pepper is OK, once you start adding red, yellow, orange and even dark purple ones, a dish certainly takes on a very festive look.

This colourful dish is really very good served at room temperature, in place of a salad. We had it with cold smoked fish. I also made a pickled mushroom dish and a tomato and basil salad, so we were well on our way to our five for the day.

Harlequin Peppers

4-5 peppers (red, green, orange and yellow)
1 red onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Remove the stalks, white membrane and seeds from the peppers and cut into 1cm wide slices.

Peel and slice the red onion and garlic.

Heat the oil in a deep pan and saute the red onion and garlic for about 5 minutes. Don't have the temperature too hot or the garlic will burn and taste unpleasant.

When the onion is soft, add the pepper slices and saute over a medium heat, turning from time to time, for about 10 minutes. You can cover with a lid while it is cooking - moisture will condense on the lid and fall back into the dish, preventing burning. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper and sprinkle with the balsamic vinegar. Turn into a serving dish and set aside for 3-4 hours.

If you like, you can add some anchovies and capers during the last five minutes of cooking.