Sweet pepper shrimp

If I could fuel my body on Halloween candy, I would.

But I'm not built to handle that much sugar.

And most health-conscious eaters aren't either...

Which is why they stock their kitchen with natural sweeteners such as:

• agave syrup

• monk fruit

• stevia

Chefs, however, take another approach.

Not by ADDING things to sweeten a dish...

But by gently coaxing out the natural sugars in the ingredients themselves...

So you can taste them.

At the highest levels of cooking, chefs routinely transform humble vegetables like:

• peppers

• carrots

• onions

Into sugary-sweet morsels of tasty goodness...

To assemble a natural harmony of flavors...

Without adding a single sweetener.

The method?

A time-tested process that concentrates flavors:

Caramelization.

Let's explore how to use this process to enhance the natural sweetness of vegetables in this week's recipe for sweet pepper shrimp with charred broccolini and squid ink pasta.

What causes vegetables to caramelize?

If you bit into a whole raw onion, you wouldn't smile and say, "Wow, what a delightfully sweet vegetable this is."

Your reaction would be less pleasant.

But even though that onion doesn't taste sweet (like a banana or a ripe peach)

It still contains sugar.

And when it's caramelized in a pan, under the right conditions those sugars break down, transforming into new compounds...

Which create a rich, sweet, and slightly nutty flavor, plus a darker (but not burnt) color.

Have you ever had a bowl of French onion soup?

If you have, you've enjoyed onions cooked for around 2 hours until the moisture is cooked out and the sugars become dark, rich, and sweet...

Giving them a mouthwatering, sweet/savory, concentrated, onion flavor.

Many other vegetables have somewhat high amounts of sugar, like:

• carrots

• peppers

• tomatoes

• sweet potatoes

And this technique works for them, as well.

How is "caramelization" different from "sweating"?

If you've ever cooked a recipe, you may have followed instructions telling you to "sweat" vegetables in a pan.

Now before you take your shirt off and lean over the stove to drip sweat on your peppers and onions, hold on a minute.

"Sweating" refers to something else.

When you sweat vegetables, what you're doing is:

• seasoning with salt (at the beginning)

• gently softening them as they cook

• not browning or caramelizing

• drawing out moisture

It's a great technique for building flavors in slow-cooked dishes by drawing out the natural flavor of leeks, garlic, onions, shallots, etc.

But it doesn't lend the darker, sweeter, richer element that caramelization does.

How to caramelize vegetables:

To caramelize vegetables, the technique is different.

And since there's less moisture in the pan, you'll need to pay very close attention to the food as it caramelizes.

The natural sugars burn easily unless you control the heat and stir the vegetables frequently.

1. Pour a small amount of oil into a hot pan on medium-high heat.

2. When the oil is smoking hot, add the sliced or diced vegetables

3. Adjust heat as needed to prevent burning, and stir with a wooden spoon

4. Cook for 20-30 minutes until they develop a golden brown color

5. Season with salt (at the end)

Once you master this technique, you'll find endless uses for it.

Adding a few spoonfuls of rich, caramelized vegetables can turn just about any dinner into something special.

Bringing it all together

This week's SIMPL recipe uses a lightly caramelized trio of diced onion, red bell pepper and garlic as the base for a mouthwatering pasta sauce.

The sweet caramelized vegetables are simmered with tomato, oregano, and salty capers, then blended into a smooth, bright-orange purée.

I char broccolini under the broiler, slice and toss it with cooked squid-ink spaghetti and olive oil, then divide it into meal prep boxes.

I top it off with one of the most versatile proteins - shrimp.

For this version, I brown garlic with olive oil in a pan, and add the shrimp.

Steamed with a splash of white wine, I pile the shrimp on top to finish this (54g protein) meal prep masterpiece.

Here’s the nutrition breakdown for 1 serving:

Wanna know what happens when you add high-protein dishes like this to your weekly rotation?

You catapult your meal prep skills from “good” to “superior.”

Or as I like to say, "ELITE."

And when you have easy-to-follow breakdowns for each dish at your fingertips…

Plus step-by-step videos…

That's when you master them.

Become a SIMPL Insider today and see the exact steps to craft every high-protein recipe I've made in the last 5 months. 

It's your key to becoming nutritionally self-reliant at home while supporting your gains in the gym. 

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