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.