Pimentos Assados a Portuguesa, Roasted Pepper Salad
Roasted peppers turn up as a petisco all over Portugal, blistered black over a flame, peeled, and left to sit in garlic and vinegar until they are meltingly soft. Where a Catalan escalivada chars peppers alongside eggplant and onion, and a Greek plate leans on its own local pepper and oil, the Portuguese version is plainer and sharper: peppers alone, cut with red wine vinegar and cilantro, eaten cold. The technique is all in the char and the rest. Blackening the skin gives the smoke and lets it peel, and marinating the warm strips lets them drink in the garlic and acid so the dish needs neither salt nor oil to taste complete. Make it a day ahead; it only improves. Serve it as a starter, a salad, or a topping for grains.
Ingredients
- 4 wholes Bell peppers, red
- 3 cloves Garlic, thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp Red wine vinegar
- 3 tbsp Cilantro, chopped
- 1/2 tsp Cumin seed, toasted and ground
- 1/2 tsp Black peppercorns, freshly ground
Method
- Roast the whole peppers at 450 F (230 C), turning every 8 minutes, until the skins blacken and blister all over, about 25 minutes. Charring the skin is what makes it peel away cleanly and what gives the flesh underneath its smoky sweetness, so let them go darker than looks comfortable.
- Seal the hot peppers in a covered bowl for 10 minutes, then slip off the skins and pull out the seeds, saving any juice that collects. The trapped steam loosens the skins so they lift off in sheets, and the pooled juice is free dressing, so do not rinse the peppers or you pour it away.
- Tear the peppers into wide strips and toss with the reserved juice, the garlic, vinegar, cumin, and black pepper. Let them marinate at room temperature at least 30 minutes. As the warm peppers cool they draw in the raw garlic and vinegar, which is why the flavor goes deep with no salt and no oil.
- Fold in the cilantro just before serving. Added at the last minute it stays green and fresh, the Portuguese signature over the sweet peppers.
Nutrition
Estimated per serving: 80 calories, 2 g protein, 4 g fiber, 15 mg sodium. Computed from USDA FoodData Central reference values for the main ingredients. This is an approximation, not a laboratory measurement. How these are computed.
Cost per serving is estimated from US national-average retail prices for cheap staple forms, using BLS dried-bean prices and USDA produce prices. Prices vary by store and season, so treat it as a guide, not a receipt. How this is computed.
