‘I know yeah, roll on the summer. Are you hungry?’
‘Starving, I skipped breakfast this morning and my stomach is speaking to me now,’ replied Viv.
Turning back to the menu and regretting her breakfast of cream cheese loaded bagel, Eva decided on the stuffed peppers with a side salad.
‘Stuffed Peppers’ (Serves 2)
You will need:
2 large red peppers
75g cherry tomatoes (4) quartered
2 cloves garlic crushed or finely chopped
1 medium carrot peeled
1 small red onion finely chopped
2 handfuls / 35g breadcrumbs (1 slice bread made into breadcrumbs)
Handful fresh herbs such as parsley
Olive oil
8 mini mozzarella balls (bocconcini or ciliegine)
Small chunk / 35g parmesan grated.
Method:
Preheat the oven to 190oC.
Cut the tops off the peppers to create a cap and then de-seed them. Put pepper bases and tops into the hot oven, drizzle some oil and top and bake for 10 minutes.
While they are cooking use the vegetable peeler to make carrot ribbons in a large bowl. Add in the finely chopped red onion, garlic, mozzarella balls and quartered cherry tomatoes. Season with salt & pepper.
In a separate bowl mix together the breadcrumbs, chopped parsley and grated parmesan.
Remove the semi-cooked peppers from the oven and spill out and discard any juices that may have gathered then fill the bases with the tomato mixture and top generously with the breadcrumbs. Return to the oven with the pepper tops on the side to cook for a further 15 to 20 minutes until the breadcrumbs are golden brown.
Serve with pepper caps on top and with a simple baby leaf salad and dressing.
As they ate lunch Eva brought up her plans to return to work.
EXTRACT ENDS
