A simple bright salad that will add a burst of flavour to your meal whatever you are serving up! Take a big dish of this on your next summer picnic, or serve it next to your roasted veggies in the middle of winter. Whatever the occasion this Simple Roasted Capsicum, Butter Bean, and Feta Salad is the perfect side dish.
I love complex, multi-layered salads that are meals unto themselves, but sometimes a simple but powerfully flavourful side salad is exactly what you need. When you are using only a few ingredients you want to make sure that you choose the best quality produce and let each ingredient shine by highlighting its best incarnation. For capsicum, that means roasting them until they are soft, slippery sweet pieces. I love roasted capsicum, and golden capsicums are especially sweet after their time blistering in the oven. You could just as easily use red capsicum here if yellow is unavailable, but I wouldn’t substitute green as they are too young and grassy.
Sweet roasted capsicums find their perfect pairing with salty Greek feta, peppery rocket, and a simple balsamic vinaigrette. Butter beans are a mild but toothsome protein source and soak up the vinaigrette nicely. This salad is deceptively simple in ingredients, but the flavour is far from meek and mild. This is one stand out side dish. As someone with special dietary needs I often find myself making meals out of the side dishes available, so I take a little extra care when creating side dishes to serve to my friends because I don’t want them to be merely expected offerings, but tasty morsels in their own right. That doesn’t mean slaving over side dishes for hours – you just need to consider a few elements to create the perfect side salad.
My side salad tips:
- Choose the freshest greens available – try a mix of leaves if you want to boost the flavour even more. This mix here included both baby spinach and baby rocket.
- Have one super star ingredient and make it shine – roasted yellow capsicums in abundance anyone? Yes please!
- Sprinkle on something salty – feta, parmesan cheese, toasted nut or seeds – make it interesting and choose a few!
- Add some protein to keep it hearty – butter beans, chickpeas, quinoa, maybe a few halved boiled eggs? Make your sides simple but substantial.
I think this Simple Roasted Capsicum, Butter Bean and Feta Salad is my new favourite combination! What’s yours?
Simple Roasted Capsicum, Butter Bean and Feta Salad
Vegetarian | Gluten Free | Serves 3-4 as a side
Ingredients
- 3 small yellow capsicums (substitute red if yellow are unavailable)
- 400 gram can of butter beans, drained and rinsed well
- 4 cups (4 large handfuls) baby rocket leaves
- 75 grams Greek Feta
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Method
- Preheat your oven to 180C (350F) and place an oven shelf as close to the top broiler as possible. Line a baking sheet with aluminium foil and set aside.
- Cut capsicum into large pieces around the core and place skin side up on the baking sheet.
- Place sheet under the broiler until the skin is blackened and blistering. This should take about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and place capsicum into a container with the lid only loosely on. Allow capsicum to cool.
- Once capsicum is cooled peel blackened skin off and cut into capsicum flesh into large strips.
- In a large salad bowl toss together butter beans, rocket, and capsicum strips.
- Crumble feta over the salad.
- Whisk together olive oil, vinegar, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste.
- Pour vinaigrette over the salad and serve.
