Grilled Pepper & Tomato Salad

This delicious looking recipe is courtesy of the amazing Alana, who writes a blog called 'A Veggie Venture', as well as a column in her local St. Louis newspaper. I've gotten so many amazing recipes from her that I don't think twice about running straight to the store and buying ingredients, like I did for her amazing Roasted Carrots last week!

What it did get me thinking twice about was the fact that I've never come up with this one my own! Do I grill peppers? Yep...only for fajita or a roasted salsa. Do I grill tomatos - you betcha...big ones and little ones! Nothing is more fun than little roasted yellow pear tomatoes. Do I combine things I roast? Most definitely! One of my and my kid's favorite is grilled zuchinni, yellow squash, and asparagus. Grill it, chop it all up. Mix in a bowl with EVOO, sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Pure bliss! Eat as is...throw in meat...the cold leftovers ROCK in a salad the next day! But combine peppers and tomatos? New one for me. Will be trying this as soon as I have time to run to the store tomorrow. Amazingly enough, I am out of peppers!? So give it a try and let me know what you think!

GRILLED PEPPER & TOMATO SALAD

PEPPERS AND TOMATOES

* Peppers - a mix of bell peppers (red and green, say) and hot peppers (poblanos and serranos, jalapeños and Anaheim peppers, say)

* Tomatoes - preferably something meaty like a Roma tomato

SALAD

*Garlic & kosher salt

*Onion - chopped into thin lengths

*Red wine vinegar Good olive oil

*Plenty of kosher salt

PEPPERS & TOMATOES: Trim the peppers and remove the seeds and membranes to discard. Cut into quarter or halves, press with the back of your hand to flatten. Grill the peppers and tomatoes skin-sides down until the skins blacken and blister all over. Leave the skins on (they provide great flavor) and let cool. (Stop here if prepping ahead.) Chop both the tomatoes and peppers into rough pieces, one-inch pieces or lengths for a side dish, or into tiny bites for a salsa.

SALAD: Mash the garlic and salt into a paste by chopping the garlic as fine as possible with a knife, then mashing the pieces into the salt with the side of a knife; stir into the peppers and tomatoes.

Gently splash the vegetables with equivalent volumes of vinegar and olive oil. Now get salty -- stir in salt, tasting after each addition, it should taste a little salty so that later, when the juices flow from the peppers and tomatoes, the flavour is still where it should be. If the peppers and tomatoes don't taste that good, it's likely because the dish needs more salt.