The Side Hustle

I love to cook. I find it meditative and a chance for me to express myself, try new things and discover new flavors. Along with main dishes, I find adding something to the dish that necessarily isn’t in the dish but would make a good accompaniment and add an extra elevation of flavor is the side dish. I’m not just talking rice or beans or vegetables, I’m talking a flavor bomb to tantalize the taste buds. I’m not going to bore you with some insanely obnoxiously long story that is only interesting to the writer about the dish where most people skip it anyways and get right to the recipe.

First up, yellow onion, bell pepper and olive compilation with olive oil.

What you need:

1 yellow (or I guess you could use white too but not red, belch) onion

3 different colors of bell pepper ( I recommend yellow, red, and orange) I guess you could use green if you’re feeling particularly Irish that day)

6-8 Olives with the pimento in sliced

Salt & Pepper to taste

Basically, I just cut the onion, peppers and olives into thin slices and saute in a pan with olive oil and salt & pepper until they are soft but not too soft that the crunch is still there.

Once ready, place mixture into a jar of some sort. I put a little olive oil at the bottom then place the mixture in the jar and top off with more olive oil.

Tada! This is a great addition to fish or an omelette or used as an appetizer topper on bread or a cracker. I got this idea from a recipe that my mom sent me but I tweaked it a little to make it my own.

It usually keeps for 2-3 weeks, depending on how much you use.  I keep mine tightly sealed in the jar and keep out on the counter.  Over time, the flavor gets more intense. I guess you could put in the fridge but then the olive oil will solidify and it looks gross- or at least that’s what I’ve experienced.  Maybe you have some magical way to keep it from solidifying in the fridge that you’d like to share?