Good for You, Healthy, Israeli food, Parve, Sephardi, Shabbos, Technique

Matbucha: The Summer Bright Tomato and Roasted Pepper Salad

| by Eliyahu Mintz
Matbucha garnished with cashew nuts

Now is when we finally get those beautiful, summer-ripened tomatoes. That is when we can rejoice in the flavor of a truly remarkable ingredient that is at its peak. And we need something like that in the summer heat. A salad like this matbucha just perks up your taste buds. Great with challah at the beginning of a Shabbos meal.

Matbucha

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:

  • 4 thick-walled red peppers
  • 6 large garlic cloves, unpeeled
  • 3 large ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
  • ½ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley or cilantro
  • 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • Juice of ½ lemon
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

  1. Grill peppers and unpeeled garlic cloves in the oven, removing from oven as they are done. Peppers need to be turned on all sides and are done with blistered and blackened all over. Garlic cloves are turned only once and are done when they are soft.
  • Place blackened peppers in a plastic bag, and twist the end to seal. Leave 15 minutes. The peels will slip right off. Slip off the peels over a strainer, to catch the delicious juices, and to leave the seeds behind.
  • Slice the peppers into strips. Peel the garlic cloves. Mix peppers and garlic with the tomatoes, parsley or cilantro, olive oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste.