Roasted Pepper and Olive Dip PLUS Purim Baskets

One of the mitzvot (commandments) of the Jewish Holiday of Purim is to give gifts of food (at least two types of food) called "mishloach manot" or "Shalach Manos."  There is an idea that it should be ready to eat food that can be enjoyed for the festive Purim meal. However, the most popular gifts are candy and cookies. I just moved my oven and fridge into my new kitchen yesterday (I'll post details of my kitchen renovation on Sunday.) so I had a last minute idea to make dips and give them with a pack of crackers. I also made a few packages of nonperishable packages for unexpected visitors, because the dips didn't stretch as far as I expected.

Each package had three of the following:
- Roasted chickpeas (recipe to come)
- Eggplant & Tehina/tehini
- Avocado salad with tomatoes and garlic
- Roasted bell pepper dip with olives and roasted garlic (instructions below)


1.Wash bell peppers and take excess paper off garlic.  Cut and seed peppers if desired. Alternatively, you can roast them whole, flip them half way through and seed them when you peel them.

2. Roast until the peppers are very soft and the tops are black.

3. Remove skin when they are cool enough to handle and squeeze a few cloves of garlic out of the skin.


4. Hand chop a little bit of the peppers and a few olives to top the dip.

5. Blend the rest of the peppers with about a quarter can of olives and two large cloves of garlic for every four peppers. Add salt or more garlic to taste. (You could hand chop the whole thing for a thicker salad.)

6. Top with hand chopped olives and peppers and serve warm or cool.

Want to see some of the packages we received? Images below.
Happy Purim!