Salată de ardei copți (Romanian roasted pepper salad) (vegan)

This is one of our favorite things to eat from our local Romanian cuisine. The flavor that comes with roasted peppers and its delicate veggie smokiness is matched by few things in this world. Since we recently made this salad (for the first time I should add, since back home someone else would always make it) to use it as an ingredient for another salad, we decided to share this recipe, especially for our non-Romanian friends. 
The salad is supposed to be served as a side to a main course. There are more than one way to roast the bell peppers, but the easiest and least messy by far is using the oven, as we have done here. Also, keep in mind that red bell peppers yield the most flavorful and juicy pulp, so they should be the only color choice for this. Enjoy.




Ingredients (serves 2):

• 4 big red bell peppers
• salt 
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red balsamic vinegar

Wash the peppers and put them in a tray lined with baking sheet.

Bake them in the oven at 250 degrees C (maximum heat) for 40 minutes, turning them on the sides every 10. This way, each side will be up for 10 minutes, enough to get roasted.

When they're done, put them in a small pot and sprinkle salt over them generously:

Cover the pot and let them rest for 15 minutes. In this time, they will leak some juices and their charred skins will become easier to peel off. Don't wash them at any point, or you will loose most of the flavor. After they soak up simply peel their skins off and discard them:

Event peel the skins that seem not burnt - they're chewy and not very nice to end up in the salad. Only the soft pulp should be put there.So peel off everything and put the pulp, into long strips into the salad bowl. Add salt to taste, the oil and vinegar and about 2 tablespoons of the juices left by the peppers. Mix and the salad is done. Dig in! :)