Every year about this time, I start craving salads. And by craving, I mean intense, must have it, primal longing. It’s as if my body, as well as my mind, knows that fresh local produce will soon be a fading memory. I find myself at the farmers markets overloading my trusty, ever ready Metro Kart with bell peppers, celery, sweet onions, corn, lettuce, fennel, chiles, and tomatoes. Plus whatever else looks amazing that day.

Then I have fun all week creating tasty whole-meal salads for lunch and even dinner. I don’t need meat or even pasta right now. There will be plenty of time ahead for hearty meals. While I can still get a huge variety of amazing local produce, all I really want to eat is salad. Salad, salad, and more salad.

But not just any salad of course. It has to have plenty of color, crunch, and wake up every one of my taste buds. This salad delivers on all counts.

Red & Orange Bell Pepper Salad with Mint, Parsley & Lemon-Garlic Vinaigrette

This tangy, crunchy, delectable country salad is satisfying enough for a simple supper, if served with a loaf of homemade bread or Seeded Bread Crisps. You might also consider adding a handful of crumbled feta cheese or serving with warmed fresh goat cheese.

For a more substantial meal, throw a few skewers of marinated prawns on the grill and serve alongside the salad.

2 red bell peppers, cored, ribbed, seeded, and cut into ½-inch dice
1 orange bell pepper, cored, ribbed, seeded, and cut into ½-inch dice
1 medium red onion, peeled, and chopped
4 ribs celery, with leaves, ends trimmed and sliced on the diagonal
12 Calamata olives, pitted and halved
2 serrano chiles, stemmed, seeded, ribbed, and minced (use disposable gloves)
grated zest of 1 large lemon
small handful flat leaf parsley, leaves only, chopped
small handful fresh mint leaves, chopped

Lemon Vinaigrette
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
½ cup cold pressed, extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled, and minced or pressed
fine sea salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Prepare the vegetables as indicated above. Reserve.
2. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, white wine vinegar, olive oil, and garlic until emulsified. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Reserve.
3. In a large salad bowl, combine the bell peppers, onion, celery, olives, chiles, lemon zest, parsley, and mint.
4. Pour the vinaigrette over the salad and gently toss to combine.
5. Serve right away.

Serves 3-4.

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Copyright 2012 Susan S. Bradley. All rights reserved.

I was surprised and thrilled last Saturday at the Seattle University District Farmers Market at how much fresh produce is available this early in the season. Wow!

This particular farmers market is one of the few in the region that is open all winter. This past week there were sparkling bundles of tender chickweed, plump sunflower seed sprouts, tiny yellow flowering bok choy, sorrel, baby arugula, dandelion greens, and mint. I bought way too much and then had to quickly devise a few salads to use the bounty.

Although I didn’t see the Bluebird Grain Farms table, from which to replenish my dwindling supply of their most excellent Emmer farro, I had enough on hand to create a lovely textural and flavor pairing with tiny French green lentils. To these, I added some of the key components of a traditional Middle Eastern Tabbouleh salad: parsley, mint, tomato, green onion, lemon, and olive oil.

Then to heighten the flavor a bit, I sautéed diced, smoky chorizo sausage and tossed in red and green bell peppers . To that I added a bright Lemon Mustard Vinaigrette and my new stash of tender spring greens. Viola! A gorgeous and very tasty spring salad.

Early Spring Salad of Lentils & Farro with Chorizo, Bell Peppers & Baby Greens

This refreshing salad makes a memorable start to a special occasion dinner or a simple meal on its own accompanied by whole grain walnut bread. Although this is an easy salad to make, you will want to prepare the farro and lentils ahead, even a day or two in advance if you wish.

1 cup cooked Bluebird Grain Farms Emmer Farro, or other farro (instructions below)
1 cup cooked French green lentils (instructions below) (Whole Foods carries these in the bins)

1 large Italian plum tomato, cored, seeded and diced (1 cup diced)
½ large green bell pepper, cored, ribbed, and diced (½ cup diced)
½ large red bell pepper, cored, ribbed, and diced (½ diced)
2 green onions, trimmed, and minced   
small handful parsley, minced (½ cup minced)
4 mint leaves, minced

Chorizo
2 tablespoons cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil
1 Spanish dried chorizo sausage, diced (about 2 ounces or ½ cup diced) (City Market in Portland, Oregon sells an excellent Spanish chorizo called Palacios; 4 small sausages per package for $8.50)

Lemon Mustard Vinaigrette
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon wild flower honey
½ cup cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil
fine sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Spring Greens
2 cups of two or more of the following: chickweed, sunflower seed sprouts, flowering bok choy, baby arugula, baby spinach spring salad mix

grated zest of 1 lemon
freshly ground black pepper

1. To prepare the farro, in a large saucepan, bring 3 cups of chicken or vegetable stock or water to a boil and add ¾ cup of farro. Boil for 5 minutes, cover, and simmer for about 50 minutes, until the grain is tender and nicely chewy. Drain and rinse under cold water. Drain again thoroughly and store in a covered container in the refrigerator until needed. (You will have about 1½ cups of cooked farro.)
2. To prepare the lentils, in a large saucepan, add ½ cup lentils and water to cover. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 20-30 minutes, until the lentils are tender but still have some bite. Drain and rinse under cold water. Drain again thoroughly and store in a covered container in the refrigerator until needed.  (You will have about 1¼ cups cooked lentils.)
3. In a mixing bowl, combine 1 cup each of cooked farro and green lentils. (Save the remainder for another use.) Add tomato, green bell pepper, red bell pepper, green onion, parsley, and mint. Reserve.
4. To prepare the chorizo, in a sauté pan, heat the olive oil and add the chorizo. Sauté for a minute or less, until the chorizo is chewy-crisp and releases some of its fat (turning the olive oil red). Remove the chorizo with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel. Reserve the oil.
5. To prepare the Lemon Mustard Vinaigrette, in a small bowl whisk together the apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, Dijon, and honey. Whisk in the olive oil and season to taste with salt and pepper.
6. To serve the salad, toss the farro and lentil mixture with about ¼ cup of the vinaigrette. Season to taste. Place 1 cup of the salad in the center of a large serving plate. Repeat for a second serving.
7. In a mixing bowl, toss the spring greens with a few tablespoons of the remaining vinaigrette and arrange the greens around the farro and lentil salad.
8. Drizzle a little of the chorizo oil on each of the plates, divide the sautéed chorizo between the plates, and grate lemon rind and black pepper over each serving.

Makes 2 dinner salads or 4 appetizer salads.

When Columbus first set foot on the Caribbean island that is now shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, he was hoping to find black pepper, the world’s most costly spice. Instead he found the genus Capsicum which the native inhabitants called aji. Probably a little frantic that his expedition was going unexpectedly awry, he quickly renamed the spicy vegetable, pepper, and while he was at it, the Arawak natives, Indians, to support the idea that he had indeed found a western trade route to India.

Columbus may have been mistaken on both counts, but the discovery of Capsicum peppers was perhaps the most fortuitous food discovery made by early explorers. Today the genus (which includes peppers both blindingly hot and mild as summer rain) gives the world its most widely used flavoring.

In the mild category, sweet bell peppers are used extensively in their countries of origin, namely Central and Latin America, as well as in Mexico and the American Southwest. Spanish and Portuguese traders first introduced the new genus to countries where spice appreciation was already well established, namely India, the Middle East, and the Far East. Hungary was an early sweet pepper enthusiast as well, followed closely by Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and finally, England, which reintroduced the vegetable to American soil with the early colonists.

Though peppers were not a popular crop in colonial America, American cooks eventually warmed to the idea of including them in their developing regional cuisines. By 1888, Burpee’s Farm Annual offered some twenty varieties of pepper seeds. Today there are over one hundred sweet pepper cultivars on the market. California and Florida produce most of America’s sweet pepper crop, so it is understandable that both of these regional cuisines represent the sweet pepper well. Exemplary use is also made of sweet peppers in Northwest cuisine and Creole-Cajun cuisine.

At some point in early culinary history, cooks (probably Native American cooks) noticed that the skins of many peppers, particularly the sweet varieties, toughen and become less digestible when cooked slowly in a liquid environment. Since campfires were close at hand, it would have been noticed that this papery skin separates when charred, making it easily removable. Good cooks in every corner of the world have been roasting and skinning their sweet bell peppers ever since.

While you lose the bright taste and crisp texture of fresh peppers when you roast them, you obtain in exchange an irresistible smoky flavor and a lush, almost meaty texture. In fact, peppers become an entirely different ingredient when treated in this manner.

The rule of thumb is this: If you plan to use the peppers raw or in a quick sauté or stir-fry, leave them as is. Otherwise, roast and skin them.  And now that you know the rule, you may of course break it any time you wish.

Roasting Peppers Step-by-Step

The following directions for roasting and skinning peppers will become second nature after you’ve roasted a couple batches of peppers. Cutting the peppers in half before roasting saves a lot of tedious rotating in the oven and provides perfect results every time.

Note If you are handling hot peppers, wear disposable plastic gloves, and be very careful not to touch your face. Also, some supposedly mild peppers, such as poblanos, can on occasion be quite hot. If in doubt, wear gloves.

Broiler Method

This method is preferred for large quantities of peppers. It’s quick and relatively easy.

1. Cut bell peppers in half lengthwise through the core.
2. Cut around the stem on each half. Remove the stem, along with all seeds and fleshy ribs.
3. Coat an edged baking pan with vegetable spray. Place pepper halves (or quarters if peppers are quite large), preferably not touching, skin-side-up, on the pan.
4. Broil, as close to the heating element as possible, for about 12-15 minutes, until the pepper skins are uniformly blackened.
5. Remove baking pan from the oven and, using tongs, place pepper halves into a large bowl. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and leave peppers to steam for 15 minutes.
6. Remove pepper halves from the bowl. Hold each half under cool running water and gently peel away the charred, papery skin.
7. Pat peppers dry with paper towels and slice, dice, or chop according to recipe directions.

Direct Flame Method

This method is useful if you need to roast only 1 or 2 peppers. It requires an open flame, as in a gas stove top.

1. Hold a whole pepper with flame-proof metal tongs, and place the pepper directly into the open flame of a gas burner.
2. As the surface of the pepper blackens, turn the pepper to evenly blacken the entire surface.
3. Place blackened peppers into a large bowl. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and leave peppers to steam for 15 minutes.
4. Remove pepper halves from the bowl. Hold each half under cool running water and gently peel away the charred, papery skin.
5. Pat peppers dry with paper towels, and then cut around the stems and remove.
6. Cut the peppers in half lengthwise, and remove the seeds and fleshy ribs.
7. Slice, dice, or chop according to recipe directions.

Sometime in those happy first couple of years together, I discovered a cookbook that defined that period of our lives: The Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas. And even though I was teaching a 10-week course at the university on the art of French cooking (only a lesson or two ahead of my students), what I cooked for us at home were Anna’s simple, tasty, affordable dishes. We weren’t even vegetarians.
I am looking at that scruffy book now, held together only by yellowed tape. Almost every page is covered with my barely legible notes, such as “make triple batch for large blue casserole,” and “James’ favorite onion quiche.”
The Eggplant Pasta Sauce on page 246 contains a couple of my early revisions. Today’s recipe barely resembles its predecessor, but the idea is the same: namely, a piquant tomato-olive-wine sauce with generous quantities of sweet peppers and eggplant.

This hearty, almost meaty, sauce is one of the first dishes I make each fall in the Northwest. In September, farmers markets are overflowing with eggplant, bell peppers, and ripe heirloom tomatoes. The colors and flavors are amazing together.
Thank you, Anna Thomas, for the inspiration and for enriching our lives with your memorable dishes.

Spicy Eggplant Tomato Sauce

This chunky, flavor-packed, and highly addictive sauce is wonderful in the fall and winter over pasta or polenta, quickly sautéed whole button mushrooms, or steamed and buttered cauliflower florets.

Serving Note Use 1 quart of sauce for 1 pound of dried pasta or 1½ pounds of either vegetable. Top with 3 to 4 ounces of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Storing Note Any remaining sauce may be frozen for up to 3 months.

¼ cup olive oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 teaspoons dried basil, crumbled
2 teaspoons dried oregano, crumbled
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes (or more if you want the sauce extra-spicy)

20 Calamata olives, pitted and sliced (about ½ cup)
20 green olives, pitted and sliced (about ½ cup)
½ cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked in hot water to soften, drained, and then chopped
6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

1 large globe eggplant or 2-3 smaller Italian eggplants (1½ pounds), stemmed, then diced
2 green bell peppers, cored, seeded, and diced (or orange or yellow bell peppers)

3 pounds cored, skinned, seeded, chopped, ripe heirloom tomatoes (or three 14 1/2 ounce cans diced tomatoes)
2 cups dry red wine
2 cups vegetable stock (or chicken stock)
2 tablespoon tomato paste

1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped or torn
1 tablespoon fresh basil, torn
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. In a large skillet, heat the oil.
2. Add, and then slowly sauté the onions with the dried basil, dried oregano, and crushed red pepper until softened but not brown, about 20 minutes.
3. Stir in the olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and garlic, and sauté for a few minutes more to meld the flavors.
4. Add bell peppers and eggplant, and stir to coat with oil. Sauté briefly, about 2 minutes.
5. Add tomatoes, red wine, vegetable broth, and tomato paste. Simmer very slowly for about 40-60 minutes, adding a little more stock if the sauce becomes too thick.
6. Add fresh oregano and basil, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
7. Serve hot over sautéed mushrooms, steamed cauliflower, sautéed polenta, or cooked pasta.
8. Garnish with freshly grated Parmesan cheese if desired.

Makes 2 quarts sauce.