Vegan Recipes: Roasted Red Peppers with Fig Balsamic Vinegar

This recipe is vegan, low-carb, and Paleo, and it makes for a knockout appetizer or gourmet finger food.

Jesa Henneberry, a NYC-based chef that specializes in vegan, Paleo, and allergen-free cooking, shared this recipe with us. She is also a competitive figure model, so healthy eating is a huge part of her life. Get more of her recipes and learn more about her here.

This is a perfectly and lower carb play on a classic party food- crostini! Grilled sweet potato slices are subbed for the bread and offer a great depth of flavor as the base for a tapenade style topping.

Roasted Red Peppers on Grilled Sweet Potato Slices

Serves: about 15
Serving size: 3 slices

Ingredients:
3 red bell peppers (alternately use one bottle of fire roasted red peppers, drained)
4 medium sweet potatoes cut into ¼” thick rounds
½ C pitted oil-cured black olives, chopped**
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 Tablespoons fig infused balsamic vinegar*
¼ C finely chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Roast red peppers over an open flame, turning occasionally, until evenly charred all around. Place the red peppers in a bowl and cover with a lid or plastic wrap. Set aside until peppers are cool enough to handle (about 15 minutes).

2. While the peppers are cooling, heat a grill pan on high heat. Toss the sweet potato slices in 1T of the extra virgin olive oil until evenly coated; season with salt and pepper. Grill the potato slices for 3 minutes on 1 side, covered. Turn over and continue to grill on the other side, uncovered. (Covering on one side only will allow the pepper to cook through, but not become mushy) Once all potato slices are grilled, arrange them on a platter and set aside.

3. Take the peppers out of the bowl; remove the charred skin by gently scraping the outside of the pepper. Pull out the stems of each pepper, cut the pepper in half and remove the seeds and white membrane. Place the pepper on a clean work surface and slice into ¼” strips, then proceed to slice the strips into 1/4” dice.

4. Place the diced peppers into a mixing bowl along with the chopped black olives, remaining 2 T of extra virgin olive oil, vinegar and chopped parsley. Fold to combine until well incorporated. Season the mixture with salt and pepper.

5. Top each of the grilled sweet potato slices with ½ Tablespoon of the red pepper mixture. Enjoy!

*Fig infused balsamic vinegar can be found in the specialty oil and vinegar section of your grocery store.
**If you can’t find oil-cured black olives, pitted black olives will work just as well.

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