Since the Slow Food movement came on the scene, it hasn’t just been fast food that’s come under fire. Those twenty-minute dinners that get you in and out of the kitchen, often relying on pre-prepared ingredients, have lost their credibility, too. But, fast isn’t always a compromise when it comes to flavour or food value. Sometimes quick preparations with fresh ingredients act as healthy flavour-boosters – think quick pickles or quick kimchi. Sure, it’s worth preparing things the long way, for depth of flavour or shelf-stability, but it’s nice to know you can take shortcuts sometimes, too.
This week’s French Fridays dish is one of those shortcuts to flavour. We’ve encountered pipérade before in the group, when we made Chicken Basquaise. This quick version doesn’t have the where-have-you-been-all-my-life quality that the sauce in that recipe possesses, but it’s a healthy, vegan riff on the same sorts of flavours.
I strayed a little from the recipe, choosing to sauté the onions, garlic, and hot pepper (some jalapeño I already had on hand) instead of adding them raw to the sweet peppers, but I think that was a good choice for us this time. I also skipped the green pepper, because the ones in the market today were a little dubious.
The secret to this take on pipérade is caramelizing the sautéed peppers with red wine vinegar. It mimics the flavours created by slow-cooking in the traditional recipe and can serve as a side or condiment alongside any of the traditional proteins that are paired with the real thing. I think it would also make a great accompaniment for barbequed steak. Our leftovers are going to be featuring in scrambled eggs tomorrow, or maybe even a frittata.
After that, I might have to make another batch.
Find out what the rest of the French Fridays crew thought about this week’s recipe: Pipérade Stir-fry
One Wet Foot 
So versatile, so delicious!! Beautifully done!
Slow food is good but such delicious and easy shortcuts are wonderful.. aren’t they ? Glad you all enjoyed it. We did too .
This was good, looking forward to using some leftover for breakfast tomorrow!
What a beautiful bowl of peppers, Teresa. You are so right. This might have been quick, but it was full of flavor. I like your idea of eating the peppers with breakfast.
Oh I think this would be a lovely base for a number of breakfast dishes – so flavorful!
Your peppers look delicious! Much better than mine. They really got nice color. It almost makes me want to try them again. Do you ever have that feeling? After you’ve made a recipe and it wasn’t so great, and then you see how other people did it and think, hmm, maybe I would have liked their version? That’s how your post makes me feel today. I’m thinking that I would have liked your version better.
I also wanted to cook my onions. You are right that this is a pretty fast meal.
I think this one could go in a lot of directionsn and I am on team “cook the onions” too.
I do appreciate slow food, but I have even more come to appreciate “real food done fast” (which this dish falls under). It’s good to know that we can eat well, expeditiously and not wreak havoc on our bodies.
Glad you liked this. I had not even recognised it from Chicken Basque.
I love fast, fresh preparations, especially for vegetables. I’ve been trying to think of something to do with some leftover peppers I have. I’m glad you reminded me of this recipe.