Stuffed Peppers

Peppers and tomatoes filled with half-cooked rice and baked on potatoes that catch the juices.

Vegan.

Ingredients

To stuff

• 6 large peppers
• 6 large firm tomatoes
• 4 potatoes, in thick wedges

For the filling

• 300 g short-grain rice
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 bunch parsley, chopped
• 1 bunch mint, chopped
• 150 ml olive oil
• 2 tablespoons tomato purée
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• salt and pepper

Method

1. THE RICE GOES IN HALF COOKED AND THE SHELLS ARE FILLED THREE-QUARTERS FULL. Raw rice in a sealed vegetable has only the vegetable's own water to cook in and comes out chalky in the middle; fully cooked rice swells no further and the filling is dense. Half cooked and loosely packed, it finishes exactly as the shells collapse.
2. THE TOMATO FLESH IS THE LIQUID AND IS NOT THROWN AWAY. Scooped out, chopped and returned to the filling, it is what the rice absorbs. Discarded, the dish needs stock adding and tastes of it.
3. THE POTATOES ARE NOT A GARNISH. Wedged between the vegetables they hold them upright and take up everything that leaks, and they are the best thing in the tin.
4. Tops cut off the peppers and tomatoes and KEPT -- they go back on as lids.
5. Seeds and pith out of the peppers. Tomato flesh scooped out with a spoon into a bowl, chopped, and the shells salted inside and stood upside down to drain 15 minutes.
6. Rice boiled in plenty of salted water for 6 MINUTES ONLY -- half the packet time -- then drained and rinsed cold to stop it.
7. Oil in a pan, onions softened 10 minutes, garlic 1 minute.
8. Chopped tomato flesh, purée and sugar in, simmered 10 minutes until thick.
9. Off the heat, the rice, herbs, salt and pepper folded through. Tasted: it should be slightly over-seasoned, because the vegetables are not.
10. Shells stood in a deep tin, filled THREE-QUARTERS FULL, and the lids put back on.
11. Potato wedges pushed into every gap between them. Oil poured over everything, a little water in the base of the tin, and salt over the potatoes.
12. Covered with foil and baked at 180C for 50 minutes, then UNCOVERED for 35 minutes more so the tops catch and the potatoes colour.
13. Rested 30 minutes. Eaten warm or at room temperature, never straight from the oven, and better the next day.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Greece · All recipes