Spice Up Your Dinner: The Magic of Peppers

Oh, how I love peppers.
They're so much fun. Colorful and vibrant, some are sweet, some spicy – but never boring.

They're about 90% water, with the rest packed with Vitamin A, calcium, a touch of iron, potassium, magnesium, a hint of zinc, and loads of Vitamin C – more than even an orange.
Vitamin C is essential for the body, boosting the immune system, aiding recovery from injury, enhancing iron absorption, and supporting bone and tissue health, among other benefits.
The challenge is that the vitamin isn't stored in the body, so it needs to be a regular part of your diet.
This is where those beautiful, colorful peppers come into play.

So what can you do with peppers besides toss them in a salad?
You can roast them in the oven, slice them into strips, mix with balsamic vinegar, fresh garlic slices, and a pinch of coarse salt – for a fun pepper salad. It pairs wonderfully atop a slice of bread with cream cheese.
When you're in the mood for a snack, slice the peppers in half to form little boats, fill each with cottage cheese, and enjoy.

You can also make a cheese and colorful pepper toast:

1. Sauté diced onion with diced peppers.
   You can add carrots for some color, though it's optional.
   Some may shy away from frying with butter: "It's saturated fat, low smoke point, etc.".
   But I, on occasion, love to lightly fry with a smidge of butter.
   Not a lot – just sweep a thin layer of butter across the hot pan, and enjoy all the great nutrients butter has to offer, like abundant fat-soluble vitamins and minerals essential to us.
   But perhaps the best thing about butter, it's delicious.

Since Vitamin C is quite sensitive and prone to being destroyed by heat, it's important to keep sautéing short and light.
Don't worry, though – even if you cook them a bit longer, there's still plenty of Vitamin C in peppers, and a good portion will remain to nourish your body.

1. Meanwhile, take two slices of bread. Slightly stale bread works best – still good, worth saving – and cut a "window" in the middle.
   Keep the "window" aside.
   When I don't have time to make bread at home, I like buying rye sourdough bread.
   Sourdough has many advantages over regular yeast bread, but more on that in a separate article, G-d willing.

Place the bread in the pan, and into the center (the window) goes the pepper mix.

3. Beat an egg in a bowl, then pour over the peppers.

Cover with a slice of yellow cheese, and top with the "window" we set aside.

Once it browns, flip to the other side.

That's it, let's see if any kid can resist this temptation.
The most fun is slicing the toast in half and watching the yellow cheese stretch.

And voilà, we have another light, nutritious, and tasty dinner.

In my next article, G-d willing, I'll continue with more fun and light dinner ideas (emphasizing the light, because who wants to stand too long in the kitchen after a long day?).

Until then, lots of health,
Hen Tovi