Who’s your favourite famous vegetarian? In Canada we have Pamela Anderson, Alannis Morisette, Shania Twain. There is Bridgette Bardot, Albert Einstein, Paul McCartney, Natalie Portman, Mahatma Ghandi, Da Vinci, Gaudi! Greece has too many vegetarians to name. There are many out there in the world and the list in growing. I don’t think I’ll ever convert to total vegetarianism but I have reduced the amount of meat I consume in my diet.
It’s healthier, I’m treating myself better, enjoying a more diversified diet and feeling better in the process. One of my favourite Greek dishes is Stuffed Peppers with rice and ground beef but I also enjoy the meatless version containing just rice and lots of herbs. This dish really shines in the summer when the tomatoes are ripe and sourced from your garden or farmer’s market. Our home in Greece (and here in Canada) always has an array of fresh herbs (which we use daily in our cooking).
Ingredients
Serves: 4 -6
- 12-14 Cubanelle & red Shepperd’s peppers
- 2 large onions, diced
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 3-4 large ripe tomatoes, passed through a box grater (or 1 cup plum tomatoes, pureed)
- 1 cup extra-virgin Greek olive oil
- 2 cups Arborio rice
- 1 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh dill
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
- 2-3 tsp. sea salt (to taste)
- 1/2 tsp. ground pepper
- hot water
- Pre-heated 375F oven
Preparation
- Pour 1/2 cup of olive oil in a skillet and add your diced onions, garlic and stir and simmer for 5-7 minutes to sweat until the onions are soft and translucent. Now add your tomato puree and simmer for another five minutes. Add the rice, the herbs (dill, parsley, mint) and stir in then take off the heat. Add your salt and pepper and stir in and allow to cool.
- In the meantime, rinse your peppers and carefully cut stem end off the pepper. Remove the ribs and seeds inside the peppers (use fingers, knife or spoon) and find a deep baking dish or roasting pan that fill your peppers very tightly.
- Using a spoon, stuff your peppers (push the filling down with your fingers if need be) and place the stem on the pepper and lay sideways in your roasting pan. Repeat and stuff your remaining peppers (tomatoes are great to stuff as well).
- Pour the remaining olive oil over all the peppers plus enough hot water to come up halfway up the peppers. Sprinkle coarse sea salt and fresh ground pepper and place in your pre-heated oven (uncovered) for 70-90 minutes or until the peppers are golden-brown on top, rice is cooked (go on, open a pepper and taste-test). Serve with good homemade crusty bread…that sauce is gold!
