Turkish Ezme Recipe

I saw a recipe on one of my favorite Turkish blogs the other day and could not wait to make it. You can see it here: http://ozlemsturkishtable.com/  Thank you Ozlem!  First I had to find the red pepper paste.  I found this at a Middle Eastern store.  Biber Salcasi.  Good stuff!

Our tomatoes are pretty horrible right now so I had to improvise.  I used my oven roasted tomatoes which have great flavor.

First, you dice a medium onion and using your hands, smooch them together with 1 tablespoon of the red pepper paste.  I have done this with other recipes and it is a great way to blend flavors when using onions.

Oops...out of order.  This is the finished dish.

I added some diced cucumber to add texture since I did not use fresh tomatoes.  I diced 2 fresh jalapenos, removing the veins so this would not be too spicy. Add 1 tablespoon of tomato paste, salt and pepper, parsley and mint.  I forgot to buy fresh parsley and mint so I added dried.  Add a few tablespoons of olive oil and the juice from 1/2 lemon.  Mix this together very well and let it sit for a while to let the flavors develop.

I served it on garlic butter pitas along with some olives, feta, hummus, stuffed grape leaves and cucumbers with pomegranate molasses and sumac.

And baklava made a nice dessert.