Capsicum Salad with Capers and Red Onion (And Salmon Cakes)

Crikey, I made this one for Cookbook club waaay back in early 2024!  Procrastinate?  Nope, not me.  This is my take on a recipe called Raw Capsicum salad with capers and red onion, from The Food Saver's A-Z by Alex Elliott-Howery and Jaimee Edwards. 

But as you can see, I decided to go for the roasted capsicums (in a jar), rather than the raw capsicum.  When I was a uni. student back in the day, I moved into a share house with some vegans and vegetarians.  I had never eaten capsicum in my life (mum and dad were the meat and 2 veg. types - think of boiled potatoes and tinned peas), so I got to try it for the first time.  I did NOT like it, my friends, but I was determined to, so I just kept on trying it till I did like it.  As I have done with many foods (and things) in my life :=)  Ah yes, a free bit of life advice there for you all - hehehe ...

salad, fish cakes and potatoes

Serves 2-3 as a side, or 3-4 as a main with the fish cakes:

Ingredients:

1 x 260g./9 oz jar of roasted/chargrilled capsicum, drained to give you 160g./c. 6 oz roasted capsicum  see Notes

1 small red onion

2 small cloves of garlic

1 Tbs EV olive oil

1 Tbs vinegar (they say apple cider, but use white wine vinegar or whatever you fancy, or have lying around the pantry)

a big pinch of salt, and of sugar

as much freshly-ground black pepper as you like - maybe 10 grinds?

some paprika, they say - half a teaspoon, a whole teaspoon? - you choose

1 Tbs capers

an amount of chopped dill or parsley - you know what I chose - parsley! how much? 1-2 Tbs? or more or less, as you please

Salmon cakes - 2-3 for each person - Yes I used frozen ones!

and 500g./18 oz baby potatoes   see Notes

        red capsicum/pepper

red/Spanish onion

Method:

Cut the capsicum/peppers into strips or chunks as you please

Finely slice the red onion into strips (or chunks)

Place the capsicum and onion into a medium-sized salad bowl

Add the EV olive oil, vinegar, salt, sugar and black pepper to the bowl

Don't forget to add the finely sliced/chopped garlic 

Add your paprika and capers

Throw on the fresh herbs when serving with the fish cakes and potatoes

I bought baby potatoes, that I sliced (not too) thinly, then tossed in salt, pepper and a wee bit of EV olive oil   see Notes

I microwaved 'em for 3 minutes, and then baked for around 20 minutes at 220C/430F, till tender

The salmon cakes came out of my freezer; I baked them as per the packet instructions

you guessed it!

Notes:

The authors suggest using one whole raw capsicum, sliced thinly but they give jarred, roasted capsicum in brine as an option - which I took!

I bought baby potatoes (which come with butter and herbs), which I sliced fairly thinly, before tossing in oil etc

yep, it's them!

ingredients gathered

capsicum, onion and capers in the bowl

serve with salmon cakes, baked potato slices, and a dash of Kewpie mayo