Taktouka (Roasted Pepper & Tomato Salad)

Char the peppers whole — over a gas flame, on a barbecue or under a hot grill — turning until the skin is blistered and black in patches.

Take them all the way to blistered, 10–15 minutes. Pale peppers will not peel.

💡 The skin has to separate from the flesh, and only real heat does that. Half-charred peppers mean you will be picking at them with a knife for ten minutes and tearing the flesh apart.

Put the hot peppers in a bowl and cover it tightly for 10 minutes.

💡 The trapped steam does the peeling for you. Skip this and you are fighting the skin; do it and the skin slides off in sheets.

Peel the peppers, pull out the stems and seeds, and tear the flesh into rough strips.

💡 Tear rather than slice — torn edges catch the sauce where knife-cut ones stay slippery. Do not rinse them, or the smoke goes down the drain.

Grate the tomatoes on a box grater, discarding the skins.

Warm the olive oil in a wide pan over medium heat and cook the garlic for 30 seconds.

Add the paprika, cumin and cayenne and stir for 15–20 seconds, until they bloom and colour the oil red.

Pour in the grated tomato and the salt straight away.

Simmer 12–15 minutes over medium heat, until the tomato has thickened and lost its raw edge.

Add the torn peppers and stir them through.

Cook a further 10 minutes, until the mixture is thick and the oil separates and pools at the edges.

💡 Same signal as zaalouk: the oil coming back is how North African cooks know a tomato base is done. Watery taktouka soaks the bread instead of sitting on it.

Stir in the coriander, taste for salt, and take it off the heat.

Serve warm or at room temperature with bread, or alongside grilled fish or kefta.