Roasted Red Peppers

It seems I have been obsessed with roasting vegetables lately. But hey, the weather is cooling down, so I will take any chance I can to crank up the oven.

Since volunteering at our CSA, I have taken home a lot of old, wrinkly, blotched, and bruised peppers that did not make the cut to be given to other members. Our fridge was full to the brim with these bulky, awkwardly shaped veggies. Something had to be done, so I decided to condense them down by roasting them.

Here's how it's done:

1. Preheat your broiler. Now, I will admit to being an amateur at broiling things. I did not know that you could preheat your broiler. I was under the assumption that you click it on, and bam! Immense heat that continues until whatever you put it under has turned into a delicious, broiled mess.

Not the case. You learn something new every day.

2. Place the clean, wrinkly guys on a baking sheet and drizzle with oil. I used extra virgin olive oil, but I think next time I will just stick with a veggie oil or something with a lower smoke point since a good portion of the oil just burned under the overwhelming temperature of my preheated broiler.

3. Stick those bad boys on the top rack of your oven and wait until you start to see black splotches appear. Take them out, turn the peppers over using some tongs, and stick them back in again.

4. Once they look slightly charred on all sides, remove them from the oven, place the peppers in a bowl, and cover tightly with aluminum foil. This process helps loosen the skins on the peppers, allowing for easier removal.

5. After the peppers in the bowl have cooled, about 15 minutes, take them out and gently tug on the stem. If you are lucky, the majority of seeds will come out still attached. If you only manage to pull the stem off, do not despair! Hold the pepper with one hand while squeezing with the other hand to 'milk' out the remaining seeds.

6. When the seeds and stems are removed, place the pepper on a cutting board and, using a knife, scrape the skin off of the pepper.


7. And you are finished! You will be left with one pile of delicious, oily peppers (and in my case, some seeds that I missed) that are much easier to store in the fridge. You will also have another pile of less yummy pepper parts that your chickens will gladly devour.

I drizzled some more oil onto the peppers and popped them into the fridge where they will stay tasty for a few weeks. Putting them in the freezer will extend their shelf life even more.

It should be noted that if you are working with hot peppers, you should wear gloves during this process.