Stuffed purple peppers

Only a few more weeks of Farmer's Saturday Market before they close down for winter... and it was Purple Mania all over again: I had to buy everything purple at the market.

The purple cauliflower went into a yummy salad with pears and raspberry vinaigrette. However, the purple bell peppers were asking to be stuffed and baked. Once cooked, the purple peppers don't retain their bright color, but, taste just as delicious.

Stuffing can be anything you like - say, wild rice stuffing as in my stuffed acorn squash recipe, or eggs with queso panela, corn and beans as in my Tomate Rellenos recipe, or even simple spiced potatoes and peas as for a vegetable samosa recipe.

However, I ended up stuffing these with leftovers. I wasn't in the mood to make special stuffing from scratch, and thankfully, there was enough spicy rice and cholay that needed to be used up anyway, so, this was rather a quick meal to prepare.


Ingredients
2-3 medium purple bell peppers (or red, or yellow, or orange)
Pam™ cooking spray
salt to taste

stuffing:
1 cup cooked rice - leftover rice with your favorite spices and vegetables
½ cup leftover cholay
¼ cup grated cheddar cheese (or any favorite cheese that melts well)
1 medium soy dog, diced
½ cup frozen peas
spring onions chopped (as much as you like)
cilantro, or other herbs for garnish

Preparation

1. Slice the top off the bell peppers, scoop out the seeds and ribs carefully without puncturing the flesh, slice a thin layer off the bottom to make sure the pepper will stand stably and not topple over
2. Heat the oven to 375°F
3. Either in a pan, or in the microwave, par cook the bell peppers: immerse them in salted water completely and boil for a few minutes - the thickness of the flesh and the variety of the pepper will determine how long to do this - basically, in this recipe the peppers are not going to be in the oven for too long (as the stuffing is all pre-cooked), and so, it is nice to make sure the bell pepper is not raw when ready to come out of the oven
4. Remove the bell peppers from water, pat dry, and stuff: a layer of rice at the bottom, a layer of cholay in the middle, and another layer of rice at the top
5. Spray or brush the outside of the pepper with some oil
6. Bake in a 375°F oven for about 15-20 minutes till the skin starts to wrinkle a bit, and gets softer and fork-tender (I usually pinch the top edge a bit to see if it is pliable)
7. Top with some cheese and place it under the broiler briefly till cheese melts
8. Remove from oven, allow to rest a bit
9. Meanwhile, sauté the soy dogs, peas and spring onions with your favorite spices, or just salt, and keep handy to serve on the side and possibly garnish the peppers before serving

Whereas D just picks up the pepper and bites big chunks enjoying all the goodness in each bite, I tend to dissect the thing with my knife and fork and try to take manageable forkfuls in as ladylike a manner as I can :)