Baked rice-stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

for 1 serving:

  • 2 peppers – cut the tops off and remove seeds to create 2 cups. Cut bottoms, without making a hole in pepper cup, so they can stand up in a baking dish.
  • 1 celery sticks – finely diced
  • 1 onion – finely diced
  • 1 small carrot – finely diced
  • 1/2 apple – remove core and dice finely
  • 200 ml of vegetable stock
  • 30g cooked rice
  • Fresh thyme leaves
  • sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Sauce:

  • 1 onion – diced finely
  • 2 garlic cloves – crushed
  • 1/2 tin tomatoes or 1 large tomato
  • 50g low fat quark
  • Salt & pepper

Method

  1. Add about 30 ml of vegetable stock to a frying pan and heat – add the onion, celery and carrot and cook until softened. Add more stock as required to prevent it from burning, but let it reduce before adding so you can get some colour to the vegetables.
  2. Add the cooked rice, apple and the thyme leaves. Add some salt and pepper. Stir well and simmer for 5 minutes.
  3. To make the sauce, take a small frying pan & add a little stock and cook the onion for the sauce until it softens, then add the garlic. Cook for 2 more minutes.
  4. Add the tomatoes and cook for about 10 minutes. Stir regularly.
  5. Whisk in 100 ml of stock and the quark mixing well. Taste and add seasoning as required.
  6. Preheat oven to 200ºC.
  7. Place the pepper cups in a small glass oven-proof dish and fill with the cooked rice mixture. Pour the sauce around the base of the stuffed peppers and drizzle a little over the top.
  8. Bake covered with lid or foil for about 25 minutes then remove the cover for cook for an additional 5-10 minutes. 
  9. Serve with leafy green salad and fresh herbs.