I can claim very little of this as my own recipe. The basic stuffed peppers concept and how to cook them properly was told to me by a passing shopper in a supermarket in the South of France, the vegan cheese topping recipe is from the internet (recreated here by me because I can’t find the original), the puy lentils were pre-cooked and packaged by Merchant Gourmet (what, me, lazy?) and the rice is Sainsbury’s Boil-in-the-Bag. I totally invented the salad, just so you know – for the record nobody thought of pairing lettuce and tomato until I showed up.
- 3-4 peppers – whatever colour you like
- 1 bag of boil-in-the-bag rice – ditto (for people who can actually cook rice, this is equivalent to about 125g)
- About a quarter of a packet of ready-to-eat puy lentils
- As much garlic as you can stand, crushed
- Half a teaspoon to a teaspoon of olive oil
- Pinch of dried, mixed herbs or teaspoon of fresh herbs of choice
- Pinch of salt or stock powder
Vegan “cheese” topping
- Half a cup of soya milk
- Half a cup of olive oil
- Juice of half a lemon
- 1-2 tablespoons of tomato ketchup
- 2 tablespoons potato flakes (Supermarket’s own cheapo version of ‘Smash’, on no account attempt to make mashed potato with it); if your supermarket doesn’t have these, you can get just as good results by using potato flour
- 1 teaspoon veggie stock powder (I use this one)
- 1/2 teaspoon marmite
- Chop peppers in half lengthways, remove the seeds and the green stalk
- Boil for 5 minutes to soften then place to one side
- Cook rice according to instructions
- Mix rice, puy lentils and garlic together, add herbs and a very small amount of olive oil
- Place each half of pepper on a sheet of baking foil that will be enough to wrap completely around it when it is stuffed
- Put about a tablespoon and a half of rice and lentil mixture into each half of pepper and wrap them up
- Place your foil parcels on a baking tray in an oven set to 200°C/Gas Mark 6 and leave them to bake while you make the ‘cheese’ topping – check them after about 20 minutes though
- Pour the soya milk into a small pan with about 1/4 of a teaspoon of the stock powder and heat gently
- Pour the olive oil into a suitable receptacle for mixing with a hand-held blender (don’t use a proper blender unless you really love dismantling it and washing it up) – add the lemon juice
- When the soya milk is threatening to bubble, pour it into the container with the oil and blend together – it will look like mayonnaise
- Add all the other ingredients and blend thoroughly – it should look like cheese dip
- When the peppers are ready (usually about 20 mins or just under) take them out and unwrap them. Spread your ‘cheese’ mixture on top of each one and return to the oven until the topping is bubbling and just starting to brown. Actual cheese from a cow can be used as a substitute if you’re someone who eats dairy – pick something that enjoys melting.
On this occasion, the salad was made up of romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, spring onions (green onions) and toasted almond flakes.
Please do gather to applaud the excellent photographic skills of my lovely neighbour, who sent me a selection of photos to choose from – all of them awesome.