Couscous-stuffed Peppers are a go-to recipe for people who are trying to adapt to a vegetarian diet, and for good reason because they’re simple, straightforward and can be made dead cheaply. However, if they’re not done well then they’re also the blandest and most uninspired thing on the planet, and most people take away the health aspect by packing them with some form of cheese – which also makes them completely unsuitable for vegans.
My recipe just relies on taking the lovely, filling couscous and cooking it with vegetable stock, and then complementing it with a combination of veggies and smart use of seasoning. So you don’t need to rely on cheese to give it the flavour that you might sorely lack otherwise.
Couscous-stuffed Peppers
Print RecipeIngredients
- 4 x Sweet Peppers
- 200g Couscous
- 300ml Vegetable Stock
- 1 x Red Onion
- 3 x Garlic Cloves
- 1 x Large Courgette
- 75g Mushrooms
- 100g Sweetcorn
- 100g Spinach
- A handful of flat-leaf parsley
- 1 tsp Sea Salt
- 2 tsp Black Pepper
- 1 tsp Dried Sage
- 2 tsp Smoked Paprika
- 1 tsp Cayenne
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
Instructions
Pre-heat an oven to 200°C (190°C fan)/390°F/Gas Mark 6.
Place a large saucepan over a medium-low and add in the tablespoon of olive oil.
Finely dice the onion and garlic, and then add into the saucepan and allow to gently soften and go translucent. Once it does, mix in the sea salt, pepper and dried sage.
Next, and finely dice the mushrooms and the courgette, and add into the saucepan along with the sweetcorn. Stir in together with the smoked paprika and cayenne and allow the veg to cook for 5 minutes or so.
Add the spinach into the rest of the veg and stir it in until it's wilted.
Now that the veg is all softened and seasoned nicely, add the couscous and stir it in so that it coats as much of the veg as possible.
Pour the vegetable stock over the couscous, place the lid on and take off the heat and leave for 5 minutes to allow the couscous to absorb the stock.
In the meantime, cut the top off of the peppers and scoop out all of the seeds and white flesh.
Once the couscous has absorbed all of the liquid from the stock and the veg, take a spoon and fill the peppers with the couscous.
Place the tops back on the peppers, and then wrap them in foil.
If you have a decent-sized muffin tin, then place the peppers in one these as it'll help them stand up in the oven. Otherwise, you can use a more tin foil to create little nests to help them stand up in the oven.
Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
Once the 30 minutes are up, open up the foil a little and back for a further 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven, and leave to rest for a few minutes and then remove the foil and serve.
