| 1 | Preheat broiler as hot as you can get it. |
| 2 | Turn red peppers under the broiler until their skins come up in black bubbles. |
| 3 | Cool the peppers until you can handle them comfortably. |
| 4 | remove the skins, stems, cores and seeds. |
| 5 | (this is messy work. |
| 6 | I have tried removing the innards first, before putting the peppers under the broiler, and the result is not so good as this way). |
| 7 | cut the peppers into finger shapes. |
| 8 | Flavor them with fresh lemon juice and salt. |
| 9 | Let them sit for several hours, draining off the liquid that forms. |
| 10 | notes: |
| 11 | * a low-calorie but flavorful red pepper salad -- safeway got in their first carload of really cheap red peppers yesterday, and i made roasted pepper salad. |
| 12 | serve this at room temperature as a side dish for anything nicoise or spanish or greek or egyptian. |
| 13 | Or make a meal of them by adding a bowl of yoghurt, a bowl of chopped onion, some black olives, radishes and pistachios, and lots of warm pita bread. |
| 14 | Or use it with sauteed garlic and pitted black olives and a little reduced white wine as a spaghetti sauce. |
| 15 | Yield: serves 4. |
| 16 | * now. |
| 17 | Here is the real point about this recipe: these roasted peppers are insanely delicious, smooth and unctuous and aromatic, and yet they contain absolutely no calories. |
| 18 | A full-sized red pepper is only 15 calories. |
| 19 | * of course i could lose weight if i never ate more than three tablespoons of anything. |
| 20 | Any fool could do that. |
| 21 | But i don"t want to confine myself to three tablespoons. |
| 22 | Perhaps my taste buds work more slowly that other people"s. |
| 23 | I don"t seem to get the hang of what i"m eating till the second serving, or sometimes the third. |
| 24 | * at the same time, i want things that are really voluptuous and good to eat, full of interesting, complicated flavors that will satisfy me and make me feel happy and rewarded. |
| 25 | Again, any fool could lose weight by eating celery stalks and carrots. |
| 26 | Unfortunately, any number of carrot sticks over six makes me grumpish, and raw celery turns me positively surly in short order unless accompanied by delicious, fattening sour cream and cream cheese. |
| 27 | : difficulty: easy. |
| 28 | : time: 15 minutes preparation, several hours aging. |
| 29 | : precision: no need to measure. |
| 30 | : |
