Roasted red pepper spread with curd cheese: sweet, smoky, for bread
Peppers roasted whole until the skin chars, peeled and blended with curd cheese, garlic, olive oil and lemon. Roasting turns a pepper into something sweet and smoky; the curd cheese gives creaminess without mayonnaise. For bread, with eggs, as a dip for vegetables. August and September, when peppers are thick, red and cheap.
Your own work in that: 10 min.
- Peppers roasting 30 min
- Steaming and cooling 15 min
- Blending 10 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneRoast the peppers whole
Heat the oven to 220 °C. Wash and dry the peppers and set them whole on a lined tray. Roast 30 minutes, turning halfway, until the skin is wrinkled and black in patches. Charred skin isn't a mistake: it is what gives the smoky flavour.
Ingredients: 3 pcs red bell peppers · 200 g curd cheese (twaróg) · 1 clove garlic · 2 tbsp olive oil · ½ pcs lemon, juice · ½ tsp smoked or sweet paprika · ¼ tsp chilli flakes · ½ tsp salt · ¼ tsp black pepper
TipThe oven grill (top element) cuts roasting to 15 minutes, but you must watch and turn every 5 minutes.
Wrinkled, black in patchesSteam under cover
Put the hot peppers in a bowl and cover tightly with a plate or film for 15 minutes. The steam loosens the skin from the flesh; without this step peeling is a fight.
A quarter of an hour under a platePeel and clean
Pull the skin off with your fingers, halve the peppers, remove the cores and seeds. Don't rinse under water: you would wash the flavour away. Keep the juice that collected in the bowl.
The skin comes off by hand, no rinsingBlend
Blend the peppers, curd cheese, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, paprika, chilli, salt and pepper into a smooth spread. Too thick? Add a spoon of the roasting juice. Taste and adjust: it should be sweet and smoky with a clear tang.
TipFull-fat curd cheese gives a smoother spread, low-fat a grainier and lighter one. Cream cheese: creamy, like hummus.
Smooth, coral, seasonedServe
On slices of rye bread with chives, with hard-boiled eggs, as a dip for vegetables. Keeps 4 days in a jar in the fridge; the flavour is deeper on day two.
Ingredients: 4 pcs rye bread · ½ bunch chives
On bread, with chives
Before you start
Dairy-free
Instead of curd cheese, 100 g walnuts soaked for an hour and a spoon more olive oil: a spread in the spirit of Middle Eastern muhammara, for the barbecue and for bread.
With feta
100 g feta instead of half the curd cheese: salty and bold, for bread and roasted vegetables.
Peppers in stock
Roast and peel 10 peppers at once. Covered with olive oil they keep in the fridge for 4 days at most; for longer, freeze them in portions (up to 3 months). Peppers are a low-acid vegetable — kept under oil for long without added acid, they carry a risk of botulism. Use them for salads, pasta sauce and this spread in 5 minutes.
