Stuffed Vegetables
We did a poll on our instagram a few weeks ago, and the recipe voted for the most was stuffed veggies! For this recipe, you can use any vegetable you like – but for demonstration purposes, we will be featuring peppers since that’s what we usually like to use. Stay tuned though, as we will be posting a different recipe in the next two weeks for stuffing that works great with mushrooms!
Before you start:
– If we have to pick one, we recommend using dill to flavor the filling, but if you don’t like dill, you can also use parsley or even cilantro if you’re a fan. We’ve also tried combining all three herbs and even added some mint, and it came out great! So just feel free to use what you like here.
-(we did put this at the end of the recipe, but we will share it here too): Stuffed veggies take quite a while to cook, so if you want to save yourself some time, just add water or stock after step 4, and cook the rice all the way through. You can then go straight to filling your veg, or store the rice mix in the fridge if you plan on making the dish for another night (this is really helpful for weeknight meals!). When you are ready to cook the veg, you have a choice of steaming them or baking in an oven at 350 for about 20-30 min, until the vegetable of your choice is cooked through.
* For those of you who missed the note above in our intro and decided to cook the rice first: Once you fill your veg of choice with the cooked rice, you can steam them or coat the outside with a bit of olive oil and bake in an oven at 350 for about 20-30 min, until the veg cooked through.
(sorry Sprout forgot to put the cooking times for this in the footnote)
Stuffed Vegetables
Ingredients:
-4 Large bell peppers (you can do this recipe the same way with any vegetable you like – eggplant, zucchini, tomato, etc. But peppers are easiest to start with!)
-1 Ripe tomato
-⅓ Cup Parsley and/or dill (we do both, but you can also go with just one if that’s what’s accessible, or you just prefer the flavor of one over the other)
-¾ Cup white rice (short or long grain is your preference)
-½ Onion
-1 Lemon or lime (for juice)
-Salt and pepper to taste
Steps:
Start by washing and finely dicing your onion, herbs, and tomato.
Wash your peppers, and thoroughly wash your rice, then set aside.
In a hot pan, add some oil and your onions, cooking on medium heat until they are soft and translucent. Then add in your tomato and herbs.
Once the herbs are fragrant and your tomato has softened slightly, stir in your rice and keep stirring occasionally until its color changes to be more opaque and slightly toasted.
Slice off the top parts of your peppers (up to an inch from the stem) to make little ‘hats.’ Set aside your fancy pepper top hats, and scoop out the seeds from inside the peppers.
Fill them with the rice mix until they’re about ¾ of the way full, then fill to the top with water, and cover again with the pepper hats.
Place your peppers in a large pot, then gently fill the pot with hot water until it’s about halfway up the height of the peppers.
Cover and cook on high heat for about 10 minutes, then turn down to a low heat and cook for about 40 minutes or until the rice is steamed all the way through.
If you want to save a bit of time, you can always pre cook or parboil your rice ahead of time, then simply rub your peppers with a bit of oil before filling, and then bake everything in the oven for about 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees fahrenheit, until the peppers are cooked through.
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