Monday/Tuesday Stuffed Pepper Pick Me Up

Roasted peppers stuffed with cous cous. It couldn’t be more simple yet more rewarding. I made this last Tuesday when I was still feeling the after-effects of a rather joyful weekend. I needed something light, healthy and perhaps above all, fast.

The great thing about this dish is that you can keep it super simple, but you can adapt it to make it a little more exciting, depending on how you’re feeling. It all depends on what you end up putting in the cous cous for the filling. I went for the most simple thing possible, but by adding a few sultanas, some feta cheese, herbs and the like, you can go to town on this baby.

What you need for Simple Peppers Stuffed with Cous Cous for 2

Two red or yellow peppers – I ended up using the lovely long sweet ones as that’s what I had in the fridge.

100g of cous cous

About 200ml of hot veg or chicken stock

A few veggies suitable for roasting to put in the cous cous – think red onion, tomato, more pepper, courgettes, that type of thing, all finely diced

A handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper

Start by pre-heating your oven to around 180-200C.

Next, prepare your peppers. If you’re using the regular sized ones, just take off the top and halve them, getting rid of any seeds. If you’re using the longer, sweeter variety, you’ll see that they are a lot narrower than the regular shapes ones when cut in half. What I did was cut off the tops and then cut a strip from the pepper making an appropriately shaped cous cous bed.

Put all of your small diced vegetables into a suitably sized roasting tray, placing your halved peppers in the middle – although not on top of the vegetables. Drizzle everything with oil and season with salt and pepper. Pop them in the oven. They’ll be ready in 15 or 20 minutes. If you are using tomatoes, only add them in for the last 10 minutes as they will dissolve otherwise.

Meanwhile, make your cous cous. Put your dry cous cous in a large mixing bowl and pour over the hot stock, completely covering it until there is about 1 centimetre of stock above the cous cous. Immediately, stir it all around with the fork and then leave to absorb, giving it a good fluff with your fork every few minutes to avoid it all clumping together.

Once your veg is ready, mix the finely diced vegetables into the cous cous and add the parsley. You probably won’t need salt as stocks tend to be really salty already but a bit of pepper might not do any harm.

Place your roasted pepper on a simply dressed green salad. Spoon your cous cous into your peppers, as carefully as you can be arsed being. Whack it back into the oven for another 3 to 5 minutes so it’s nice and warm. But you don’t have to.

I had the leftover cous cous on the side as I self-righteously patted myself on the back for my healthy Tuesday buzz. Wicked!