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I don’t know how sinful you were with lamb, tsourekia and eggs these days, but let’s get back into the fasting and vegetarian spirit again. I have a very tasty stuffed peppers recipe, a little different and certainly easier than gemista. The magic is in the stuffing: brown rice flavoured with turmeric, and raisins, pine nuts and sundried tomatoes for extra flavour. It’s one of those recipes that is so colourful (and therefore nutritious) that it satisfies not only the stomach but also the eye.
Ingredients (for 4 peppers)
– 4 coloured peppers
– 1 cup of brown rice
– 150gr of dried tomatoes, finely chopped
– 1 tsp of turmeric
– ¼ tsp of cayenne pepper
– Juice of ½ lemon
– 1 tsp of apple vinegar
– 3 spoons of pine nuts
– 1 bunch of fresh dill, finely chopped
– 3 spoons of raisins
– Some freshly cut basil
– Salt and pepper
Preparation
Preheat the oven at 180 degrees.
Boil the rice with twice the amount of water, and after it’s boiled, add the lemon juice, cilantro, cayenne pepper and turmeric. Cover and boil for about 20 minutes until the rice absorbs all the water. In the last 5 minutes add the raisins to soften them a bit, and some salt and pepper.
At the same time, cut the peppers in the middle, keeping the stalk and getting rid of the spores. Put them on a tray and bake for about 20 minutes until the rice is ready.
In a small pan, roast the pine nuts for about 5 minutes until they get colourful.
Once the rice is ready, add chopped dill, pine nuts and sundried tomatoes and stir.
Remove the peppers from the oven and fill them with rice using a spoon.
Bake for another 20 minutes until the peppers are completely roasted and softened.
Take them out of the oven and serve with chopped basil.