Roasted Sweet Pepper Appetizer

Appetizers & Starters
Roasted Bell Pepper Appetizer with toast

A reader’s comment – “I served this appetizer with 5 others on Thanksgiving, and it was, BY FAR, everyone’s favorite appetizer…FABULOUS!!”

This Roasted Sweet Pepper Appetizer is a delicious and healthy little appetizer made with a mix of beautifully roasted, sweet bells. Any combination of colored peppers work. Yellow, orange and red make a nice looking appetizer, whereas, green and red peppers can be very festive during the holidays. If by some miracle you have leftovers, you can use them as a relish for sandwiches or as a replacement for the Jamaican Jerk seasoning in a tortilla egg sandwich if you feel like sweet rather than spicy.

Roasted Sweet Pepper Appetizer

Roasted Sweet Pepper Appetizer Recipe
Prep
15 mins
roasting peppers
1 hr
Total Time
15 mins
 

Summer’s sweet bell peppers roasted to perfection, then enhanced with a free ingredients and served as an appetizer.  “I served this appetizer with 5 others on Thanksgiving, and it was, BY FAR, everyone’s favorite appetizer…FABULOUS!!”


*So be sure to see Kitchen Notes* for more information or links to special ingredients.


Course: Appetizer, Vegan
Keyword: appetizer, peppers
Yields: 2 cups
Recipe Author: MJ of MJ’s Kitchen
Ingredients
  • 3 large sweet bell peppers* – red, orange, and yellow – roasted, peeled, seeded, and chopped*
  • 1 small garlic clove, smashed, minced or ¼ tsp. garlic paste
  • 1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
  • 1 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 Tbsp. sweet onion, minced
  • ¼ cup Kalamata olives, minced
  • 1 ½ tsp. capers, drained, rinsed, minced
  • A dash or two of salt
  • 1 loaf French or Italian bread – Bagel chips work as well
  • Olive oil for brushing on bread
Instructions
  1. Roast the bell peppers on the grill or under the broiler. (See Kitchen Notes.)
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic, vinegar and olive oil. Set aside.
  3. Once the peppers have cooled, peel, remove seeds, and chop. Transfer the chopped peppers to a medium size bowl.
  4. Add the dressing and the remaining ingredients (except for the bread). Gently combine all ingredients.
  5. Cover and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Better if left overnight to let the flavors merge.
  6. If chilled overnight or for several hours, remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving to reduce the chill.
  7. Cut the bread into ¼” diagonal slices. Brush or spray with olive oil and place under broiler until lightly toasted.
  8. Place the bell pepper mixture in a bowl and serve with the toasted bread.
Kitchen Notes

Roasting Bell Peppers

If you don’t have time to roast your own bell peppers or you just don’t want to, you can always buy a jar of roasted bells to save time. Nothing wrong with this appetizer being all red if that’s all you can find.

More on roasting bell peppers

Roasted bell peppers

There are several different methods for roasting peppers and then for cooling them. I’ve tried many of them. The two roasting methods I prefer are under the broiler or on the grill. When the weather is cold, I roast under the broiler and when it’s hot, I roast outside on the grill. I always roast the whole pepper because I have found that it yields juicier meats.

Roasting bell peppers under the broiler

unpeeled roasted bell peppers
  1. Poke each bell pepper twice with a knife. (This prevents them from exploding during roasting.)
  2. Line a cake pan or broiler pan with aluminum foil.
  3. Place the whole bell peppers in the pan and place the pan under the broiler.
  4. Turn the peppers occasionally as the skin toward the heat starts to blacken. Continue turning the peppers until the skin on all sides, top and bottom has started to pull away from the meat and blacken.
  5. Remove the peppers from the broiler and allow to cool using one of the methods below. Let cool for at least 15 minutes or until you can handle them.
  6. Once peppers are cool, remove the skin, seeds and veins. Chop the pulp.

There are also several methods for cooling the peppers. The cooling process does two things: it steams the peppers making it easier to remove the skin and allowing you to be able to handle them. Believe me, you don’t want to handle them right off the grill or out of the oven. I haven’t found much difference in the methods for cooling them as long as they “steam”. Effective methods include the following:

Steaming method for roasting peppers
  • Place in a bowl and cover with a damp cloth
  • Wrap the peppers in aluminum foil
  • Place the peppers in a plastic bag and seal

I’m sure there are other methods, but these are the ones that have consistently worked for me.

Three bell peppers- red, yellow, green |mjskitchen.com

Bell Pepper Facts (from various supporting sources)

  • Green bells have twice the vitamin C by weight than citrus.
  • Red and yellow bells have 2 to 3 times the vitamin C of green.
  • Red bells have 11 times more beta carotene than green bells.
  • As bell peppers mature on the plant they change color and get sweeter. The most mature bells – red, yellow and orange – are the sweetest because they are fully mature.

If you are looking for more way to use Autumn sweet bells, then look no further.

32 Comments

  1. That is delicious Mj you need to send me some, thanks for sharing with Hearth and soul blog hop, pinning and tweeting.

  2. Oh wow! Just discovered this recipe and I’m glad I did! A perfect little sometime to add to my cheese board this holiday season.

    • YAY! I posted this a LONG time ago and love it! So I thought I would bring it forward again and so glad I did. Glad you like it! Thanks!

  3. Pingback: Tortellini with Roasted Pepper and Onion | MJ's Kitchen

  4. I love the tie-in with this week’s Made with Love theme, MJ! This recipe definitely features bell peppers and it sounds so tasty. I really wish I had an outdoor grill so I could roast bell peppers using that method. I bet they taste even smokier. Alas, I use the broiler exclusively now… :/

  5. Pingback: Roasted Bell Pepper Almond Cheese Spread | MJ's Kitchen

  6. Looks amazing! Love how healthy it is!

    Stopping by from Whole Foods Wednesday (I posted a Watermelon and Cucumber Smoothie – #34)

    Pinned.

    Amber @ The Cook’s Sister

  7. Hi MJ,
    We just love Roasted Bell Pepper’s and this is a great appetizer that we would really enjoy. Hope you are having a great week and thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
    Come Back Soon!
    Miz Helen

  8. Great use of what we call capsicum.

    I found this via Simple Living with Diane Balch. I linked in an attempt at meatballs. Have a super week.

  9. Yum, sounds good! A great summer recipe 🙂

  10. I love the sweet peppers also. I do use green for pepper steak and a few other recipes but the red, orange and yellow are my favorites. This looks delicious and I hope to make it.

  11. What a delicious and healthy appetizer! I am looking forward to trying this when I harvest my peppers.

  12. Your Roasted Red Bell Pepper Appetizer looks so delicious! I love the sound of the recipe; it’s really fresh and piquant, and I like the addition of the balsamic vinegar too.

  13. I served this appetizer with 5 others on Thanksgiving, and it was, BY FAR, everyone’s favorite appetizer…FABULOUS!!

  14. Wow I had to bookmark this. It looks so incredible.

  15. That looks so yummy and healthy!

  16. This looks delicious – I never would have thought to pair roasted peppers with olives, but it sounds like a really good combination.

    Thanks for sharing all of those tips of making roasted bell peppers. It’s something I’ve only done once or twice in the oven, and would love to try on the grill.

  17. This looks like a fantastic relish that could go on/with all sorts of things!

  18. I am now following…I don’t want to miss anything.

  19. I have peppers in the fridge and cannot wait to give this recipe a try.

    Man oh Man! I just want to dig right into that bowl.

    Thanks for the great recipe!

  20. I had digestive problems with bell peppers, but now they (some of them, at least) are gone , so… bell peppers forever!!!
    And this appetizer looks fabulous! 🙂

    • I’m glad to hear that some of your problems with bell peppers are gone. I had problems with avocados for years but thankfully, that’s history. I hope if you do try this recipe that it suits you well.

  21. This looks delicious! I agree with Shari, there’s nothing better than roasted peppers.

  22. Mmm…nothin’ better than roasted peppers. One of my favorite vegies. Thanks for the recipe!

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