Pepper Salad

Greg over at Sippity Sup, a blog I read regularly, did a post on pickled peppers. His pictures were so bright and colorful, I wanted to run right out and buy peppers. But life got in the way and I didn’t get a chance.

Luckily, a week later I was at my local farmer’s market perusing the vendors and relishing all the fruits and vegetables when I came across a vendor selling every pepper under the sun. There were your basic red and green bell peppers, banana peppers, jalapenos, and a variety of chili peppers. But in the middle of this rainbow was something even better: a pepper salad.

Like all vendors at the market, he had a variety of sliced fruit and vegetables available for tasting, including this pepper salad. So being the food lover I am, I grabbed a toothpick and tasted the salad. It was so good, I knew I had to make it immediately.

I grabbed a variety of peppers both sweet and tangy and made the salad to go with dinner that night. The only thing I added to vendor’s already awesome creation were a couple heirloom tomatoes. The juice from the tomatoes, combined with the salt and lemon juice heightened the salad to a whole other level. Best of all, the combination of juices from the lemons and tomatoes means no dressing is needed. So the next time you’re at the farmer’s market, pick up some peppers. This salad is the easiest to make and one of the tastiest you’ll ever have.

Pepper Salad

• an assortment of peppers (both sweet and hot)
• 2 heirloom tomatoes, chopped
• juice of 1 lemon
• salt and pepper to taste

Choose a variety of colorful peppers. I used red and yellow bells and a couple bananas, but the choice is yours. If you like your peppers spicy, throw in a jalapeno or two. If you like ’em sweeter add more bells. Chop them all up into bite-size pieces.

Place the chopped peppers, tomatoes, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a large bowl and toss until well combined. Serve with your favorite protein or have by itself for a delicious snack.