Spanish Green Salad With Roasted Red Peppers and Preserved Lemon

bmann's Note:

I was attending a dinner party where the theme was Spanish food, and I was responsible for bringing a salad. The funny thing about Spain is that their salads are either super plain (e.g. a couple of tomatoes and some greens) OR contain meat, in the form of fish or cured ham of some kind. I looked at several different recipes and made up this one.

• Total Time: 2 hrs
• Prep Time: 1 hrs
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1 head romaine lettuce
• ½ cup black olives
• 2 red peppers
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 fennel bulb
• 2 lemons
• 1 carrot
• 4 roma tomatoes
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Cut up the red peppers into quarters, drizzle with some olive oil, and place under broiler to roast. Once the skins are somewhat blackened, remove from heat and cover so that the skins can come loose.
2. Slice the garlic cloves (preferably large Russian red - use more cloves if they are small) and saute them in 2 T of olive oil. Pour the oil and the browned sliced garlic into a container and set aside.
3. Thinly slice the fennel bulb. Saute it briefly in the saucepan you made the garlic inches.
4. The lemons are for making quick preserved lemons. Juice one lemon and put it in a saucepan with a T of salt and 1/2 T of sugar. Take the second lemon and slice it very thinly and put it in the lemon juice mixture in the saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.
5. Clean and roughly chop the head of romaine and place it in a large salad bowl with room for tossing. Grate the carrot and add it to the bowl. Chop the roma tomatoes into large pieces and add to the bowl as well. Add the sauted fennel.
6. Peel the roasted peppers, cut them into strips and add them to the salad bowl.
7. Combine the preserved lemon slices with the olive oil and garlic chips. Add a T or two of the lemon liquid and more olive oil, mix it a bit and let the garlic and lemon flavours mix.
8. Pour over the salad, add the olives, and toss thoroughly so the oil and lemon coats everything. Add fresh ground pepper and salt to taste, adding more olive oil and reserved lemon liquid as needed.
9. Let the salad sit in the fridge for at least an hour so the flavours can combine, then serve.