Peppers are at their peak!

It is the peak of pepper season! Some years we’ve had peppers at the farmers market into October. I wonder if that will happen again this year? Peppers are super high in Vitamin C, as much as 150% of your daily requirement. Since tomatoes and cucumbers are also in season, that means a Greek Salad must be made. 

A Greek Salad or Village Salad or Horiatiki Salata as it’s called in Greece, DOES NOT contain lettuce. It contains: sliced peppers, quartered tomatoes, thinly sliced red onion, cucumber slices, olives, chunks of feta, oregano, olive oil, lemon juice and sometimes capers. Never lettuce. If you order a Greek Salad in a restaurant and it arrives with lettuce, it’s a salad with Greek flavors. It is not a Greek Salad.

A Greek Salad is a plate full of vitamins, calcium, polyphenols, antioxidants, lycopene, anthocyanins, and more. Eat as much Greek Salad as you can, as often as you can, until you can’t stand it anymore, and then eat more. Here is an article from the Cleveland Clinic on the Health Benefits of Bell Peppers.

Peppers and corn also love each other on the plate. Chicken plays nicely with both. I just made a soup that was a Greek version of Chicken Corn Chowder. I diced an onion, a giant Bell pepper, cut the corn off two ears, sauteed it all together in olive oil and butter, cut up three chicken breasts into bite sized chunks and added them in, added some water, put the corn cobs in, added some diced potatoes and let the whole pot come to a boil, reduced it to a simmer for about 20 minutes. Next I removed the corn cobs, added in some orzo, and while that was cooking for about 8 minutes, I chopped up some dill. When the orzo was cooked, I added the dill, zested a lemon into the pot and added its juice. I seasoned it with salt and enjoyed a delicious bowl of summer’s bounty.

Enjoy! And remember to visit the Doylestown Farmers Market on South Hamilton Street in Doylestown Boro from 8am to 1pm Every Saturday (except 9/12 for ArtsFest).