Bell Pepper Tapenade

Well, you asked for an appetizer, so here it is! This one is from my new French recipe book. I served it at my crepe party on Saturday, and I think people liked it. I liked it. If you use two colors of bell peppers it's pretty, too. The part that sounds difficult is roasting the bell peppers, so let me get rid of any concern: you put it in the oven and leave it alone. More details are below, but don't let it scare you off. The recipe does tell you to use a processor, and for this one if you don't have it, use one of those cool Pampered Chef-style food choppers. Or do it the old-fashioned way and chop it all, but then that quickly negates the "fast" part of this. I would also let it sit for an hour if you can. When I first tasted it, I was sort of disappointed by the strong salad dressing taste, but I covered it and continued cooking other things. When I came back an hour later, the flavors had all blended, the dressing taste was completely gone, and it was just good.

You could probably eat this on about anything. I put it on whole wheat baguette for the party, but had some left-overs with pita chips, and someone else had some on a sandwich and said it was really good. It is somewhat filling because of the almonds, which is also the main source of fat. (We still agree that nuts are 'good' fats, yes?) I'll have to see if there's still more, because this picture is REALLY sad.

I made a few other new recipes for the crepe party, so I will be sure to post those for you the rest of this week, and maybe next.

Bell Pepper Tapenade
Serves: 12-16? Hard to say! Time: 25 minutes, tops

1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 cup almonds (preferably blanched, but mine were not)
3 Tablespoons balsamic vinaigrette dressing (mine was a lite version)

- Rinse bell peppers, cut in half length wise and put on an aluminum-lined baking sheet. Place on the highest rack in the oven and broil about 10 minutes (or until they have black spots on top) while you continue with the recipe.
- If you have a toaster oven: Toast almonds for about 3 minutes.
- If you don't have a toaster oven: Turn on a medium frying pan to medium (you don't have to wait for it to get hot.) Pour in almonds (JUST almonds) and stir occasionally for 4-5 minutes.
- After toasting almonds, chop roughly
- When bell peppers are done, cut into wide strips.
- Dump all ingredients into a food processor and process until it looks pretty to you (maybe 30 seconds? Will depend on the capacity of your processor, I did mine in two batches.)

Nutrition info (for 1/12th of recipe): Calories: 58 Fat: 4.5g Carbs: 3g Protein: 2g