Roasted Artichoke Salad with Capers and Grilled Red Pepper

Roasted Artichoke Salad with pickled okra on the side. 

Today our Fabulous 80s women's basketball team enjoyed our belated Holiday Luncheon.  Host Judy prepared ham sliders, sweet potato casserole, and drinks.  The rest of us took a favorite side dish or dessert.  Since I had a jar of artichoke hearts in my pantry I decided to prepare a roasted artichoke salad.  After googling for recipes, I chose to use Ina Garten's recipe which I tweaked just a bit. 

Ingredients:
4 boxes (9 ounces each) frozen artichoke hearts, defrosted.( I used a 32-ounce jar of artichoke hearts.)
Olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 shallot, minced
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
5 tablespoons white wine vinegar, divided (I used rice vinegar that I had on hand.)
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
6 tablespoons capers, drained
2 roasted red pepper, sliced thin (I used a 12- ounce jar of grilled red peppers.)
1/2 cup minced red onion (I omitted because I didn't have one.)
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves (I omitted.)
2 pinches hot red pepper flakes, optional (I omitted.)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the artichoke hearts in a bowl with 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 grind of fresh black pepper and toss until the artichoke hearts are coated.  Dump the artichoke hearts onto a sheet pan and spread out into 1 layer; roast in the oven for 20 minutes.  (I had to roast for 30 minutes until they were charred.)

Roasted artichoke hearts. 

Meanwhile, make the vinaigrette. Place the minced shallot, lemon juice, mustard, 1 tablespoon vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper in the food processor.  Process for 5 seconds.  Add the basil leaves and process into a green puree.  With the processor running, slowly pour 1/2 cup olive oil into the bowl through the feed tube until the ingredients are finely pureed.  Set aside.

Basil vinaigrette. 

Place the roasted artichoke hearts in a bowl and toss with enough vinaigrette to moisten.  Add the capers, red peppers, red onion, parsley, 4 tablespoons vinegar and toss gently.  Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper and let stand for 30 minutes for the flavors to blend. (I refrigerated the salad overnight.) Serve at room temperature.

Roasted artichoke salad ready to serve. 

I garnished the salad with a row of pickled okra around the edge.

There was quite an assortment of delicious dishes, and a good time was had by all of us senior basketball players.