Mystery Produce of the Week: Shishito Peppers

Pin It On Sunday, VB and I visited our local farmer's market. I gotta say that I'm not the biggest fan of farmer's markets. Granted, you support local farmers and vendors by buying there, it's fun and exciting, you get great, fresh produce, blah blah blah. All good things, of course. But one dirty little secret of farmer's market is -- it's expensive. Sometimes, it's kind of a (dare I say it?) ripoff. A long time ago, VB and I tried a jar of Indian marinate that we both liked, only to find out (painfully) at checkout that it's $11 for a tiny jar. Since then, we avoided the farmer's market to ease the memory of that expensive purchase.

I still think farmer's market is overpriced. But we went anyway and picked up a pint of shishito peppers for $4. Yes, I think that was a splurge. We spent all the money in our wallets (thankfully we only had $30) and left with a huge bag of stone fruit and some other random stuff. Not the most thrifty purchases ever, but at least I won't have haunting memories of that tiny jar of Indian marinate either.

I simply sauteed the peppers until soft with some red peppers flakes. Right before serving, I drizzled them with a little bit of sesame oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and sprinkled with some white sesame seeds. These were served as a side dish to our vegan reuben sandwiches, along with some thyme roasted potatoes and homemade sour pickles.