- Preheat the oven to 190C.
- Wash the mini capsicums, slice the lid off (but don’t discard!) Pull out the seeds and membranes and discard. If the peppers don’t sit upright, slice a bit off the bottom to give it a flat base.
- To make the sauce, heat the olive oil over a medium heat in a pan with a lid that can go from stove to oven (like a dutch oven, heh). Finely chop the onion and cook for 5 minutes or until softened.
- Add the garlic and cook for a minute or two.
- Add the crushed tomatoes, half-fill the empty tin with water, swill it around and add it to the pot. Add the bay leaf and thyme sprigs. Season generously with salt and pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes, turn off the heat and set aside.
- To make the filling, place the rice and vegetable stock in a small saucepan, bring to the boil, then clamp on a lid, turn the heat down to lowest and cook for 15 minutes. Take off the heat, remove the lid and fluff with a fork. Allow to cool slightly and turn the rice out into a mixing bowl.
- Chop the spring onion and parsley and add to the rice. Add the corn, beans, cheese, paprika, and cayenne pepper. Season generously with salt and pepper and mix to combine.
- Spoon the mixture into the capsicums (don’t overfill), and arrange the capsicums into the sauce. Place the lid on each capsicum, and place the lid on the pot. If you have extra rice mixture you can spoon it around the capsicums into the sauce, or serve separately later.
- Bake for 50 minutes with the lid on. Remove the lid and bake for a further 10 minutes.
- Garnish with extra flat-leaf parsley. Serve with salad and bread.
Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers
Recipe by Sarah Cheah - Sarah Cooks
Capsicum when baked takes on a lovely melty caramel flavour, which makes it a perfect case to fill.
Ingredients
- 5 mini-capsicums
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 onion
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 x 400 gram tin crushed tomatoes
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 1/4 cup rice
- 1/2 cup vegetable stock
- 1 spring onion
- 1 tablespoon flat-leaf parsley, plus extra for garnish
- 1 x 125 gram tin corn kernels
- 1 x 125 gram tin red kidney beans
- 1/2 cup grated cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- Pinch cayenne pepper
