Today, I have a simple midweek dinner idea for you – a vegan roasted pepper pasta. Its a perfect dish for these colder autumn nights – although its ingredients and therefore smells are still very summery – the dish itself is filling and satisfying like a cold weather dish should be.
It’s inspired by muhammara – the beautiful Syrian red pepper and walnut dip. When I made it for the first time, I incorporated ground walnuts into the actual sauce and while the taste was really good, I wasn’t too keen on the texture as it was a bit bitsy. If that does not bother you or, even better, you happen to have some walnut butter to hand, feel free to incorporate some into the sauce at the blending stage. It will give the sauce more creaminess and a pleasant earthy flavour that offers a great counterpoint to the sweet and smoky red peppers. This sauce is really pretty easy to make and it lends itself extremely well to making a double portion. As I’ve been a bit busy lately, I took an easy way out and simply used a jar of fire-roasted peppers to speed things up as they are so easily available here, in Greece. You could roast the peppers yourself if you like (here is how), but it’s a slightly messy and fiddly business so taking a shortcut is absolutely fine in my opinion. I used a fresh tomato as there are piles of ripe, late summer tomatoes in my local veg shop, but tinned tomatoes will work just as well!
