A Stuffed Green Bell Pepper Meal

(Picture: A Well done stuffed bell pepper just fresh from the oven. You can still see the droplets from steam on its surface)

I picked up a couple three bell peppers from the farmer’s market while shopping for my weekly veggies. I avoid storing bell peppers for long in the refrigerator and don’t buy them unless and until I plan to cook them that very day or the next day. Since I shopped for veggies mid-week, I hadn’t planned to have bell peppers on my list. But,once I saw these fresh, crisp and bright green bell peppers I just couldn’t get my eyes off them. I knew I had to buy at least one of them that evening and eventually landed up buying more than just one.

On my way back home, I was thinking of ways to incorporate these bell peppers into something easy and close to being a one pot meal, but could hardly think of any except for stuffing them. To make it very simple and be a quick fix weekday dinner, I decided to use rice to stuff these bell peppers, instead of a long list of ingredients. I had made a batch of paneer using organic milk at home earlier that weekend, and realized that there was sufficient left to add to the stuffing.

Though this recipe is something I put together on the go, the outcome was more appeasing that what I had expected it to be. I used less of the paneer and more of the rice for the stuffing, so in essence it was more like having pulao with sabzi in a bell pepper shell. What more when its like an entire meal by itself? These stuffed bell peppers pair very well when served with a light soup or in a pool of dal.

Ingredients

For the rice stuffing



½ cup Rice, white, pre-cooked and at room temperature
¼ cup Green peas, fresh or frozen
1 teaspoon Shahi Jeera
2 teaspoons Kasuri Methi, crushed
1½ teaspoon Oil
Salt

For the Paneer stuffing



¼ cup Paneer, crumbled
¼ cup Onions, diced
½ Tomato, diced
½ teaspoon Red Chili powder
½ teaspoon Turmeric powder
1 teaspoon Oil
Salt

For the shell:

2 Green Bell Peppers, cleaned, pith and top removed.
Cooking oil spray
Salt - optional

Method

Preheat oven at 300F. Prepare a cookie sheet with foil and set aside.

For Rice stuffing:

- Heat oil in a skillet; add jeera, peas and salt. Sauté for 3-4 mins. Add pre-cooked rice, kasuri methi and mix well. Cook covered for 5-6 mins, occasionally mixing all the ingredients. Add more salt if required, based on taste.
- Remove from flame. Set aside to cool.

For the Paneer stuffing

- Heat oil in a skillet; add chili powder, turmeric powder and salt. Sauté for 2-3 mins. Add in crumbled paneer and onions; mix well, sauté for 3-4 mins. Add in diced tomatoes and mix well. Cook covered for 1-2 mins.
- Remove from flame and set aside.

For the shell

- Wipe the green bell pepper dry. Set it on the prepared cookie sheet 2 inches apart from each other. Spray cooking oil (lightly) on the outer side of the bell pepper and sprinkle salt lightly if required.
- Fill the green bell pepper with the rice stuffing, well till the top. Using a spoon press the stuffing down, just a little. This is done to flatten the rice and provide a bed for the paneer stuffing.
- Now scoop a spoonful of the paneer stuffing on the top of the rice bed. Garnish with a chopped cilantro (optional)
- Cook at 300F for 20-22 minutes. Serve hot as is or with any light soup /dal.

Note:
****To make paneer at home I use the following recipe:
2 cups Organic milk, 2% reduced fat (For rich paneer use Whole milk)
Juice from 1 Lemon

Add fresh squeezed lemon juice to milk. Warm milk on medium-low flame, keep stirring. The whey and the cheese will separate out in about 6-8 mins. Strain the cheese using a cheese cloth. Hang it for 2-4 hours, to drain off any excess liquid. Store the paneer in the refrigerator for 3-5 days or freezer for 6-8 days.****

Instead of paneer, diced potatoes or even poultry could be used. Since I had paneer I went ahead to use it. Again this is entirely optional and you could use the best of your imagination to put together the stuffing.

Green Chick Peas Sautéed with Onions

I was surprised to spot fresh green chick peas in a local farmer’s market. I had presumed that these were available fresh only in the “Bhaaji Galis” (street side produce markets) of Mumbai. If you are familiar with Mumbai (Bombay), in summers along the Marine Drive, you’d for sure see the “channa waalahs” make spicy green chick pea salads with fresh onions, tomatoes, red chili powder and a dash of lime.

Crisp, tender and mildly sweet these chick peas were simply irresistible. I bought a pound of these chick peas (on the pod) along with farm fresh onions, lemons and cilantro. I sun dried them for a week in the scorching Texas sun and tried recreating this Marine Drive “finger” food with the ingredients I could list from memory. Though the original recipe used fresh chick peas, I gave it a slight twist with these sun dried chick peas and sautéed onions.

This recipe could be modified by replacing the fresh green chick peas with sprouted green chick peas. It’s a quick fix spicy salad and is refreshing when served with cold yoghurt in summer.

Ingredients

2 cups Green chick peas fresh or sundried

½ cup diced onions

2 teaspoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed

¼ teaspoon Turmeric powder

½ teaspoon Red Chili powder

½ teaspoon cilantro, finely chopped

Oil

Salt

Method

To a skillet add lemon juice and onions. Sauté for 3-4 mins, on medium heat, till the onions turn lightly transparent.

Add salt, turmeric powder, chili powder and cilantro. Mix well. Throw in the chick peas, sauté for 4-5 mins.

Serve hot or at room temperature with cold yoghurt.

The sun dried chick peas were slightly harder. Though they were in close resemblence to the dried packaged version, they required no pressure cooking and had a flavor very different from the completely dried and fresh ones. The dark color and the semi-dryness gave these chick peas a unique taste. If using fresh chick peas, its best to use them as is than sautéing to enhance its true flavors.