Meatless Mondays - Stuffed Bell Peppers With Feta

I am sure no one will care/do this, but don't hold me to Meatless Monday being an actual weekly thing. Ezra Poundcake does it so I was inspired to follow suit. PLUS my dear roommate is on a kick of trying to up her protein intake but is interested in doing so in a non-Atkins sort of way so last night I came up with these guys:


(I apologize for the picture quality. I meant to photograph them hot from the oven with my camera instead of cold from the Tupperware with my phone.)

The beauty of the recipe is that you can use up odds and ends of bits of veggies, sneak in some very lean protein with the fake meat, and it's all very pretty. If you have leftover rice, this would also qualify as something pretty quick to put together but since I made the brown rice just for these peppers, they took like an hour and twenty minutes. But you know, have a glass of wine, watch clips of the horrible new show Baggage, and get even more ideas for variations on this recipe by reading Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Suppers.

Stuffed Bell Peppers With Feta (makes 6 servings)
3 red, yellow, or orange bell peppers
2 cups cooked brown rice (I cooked mine in vegetable broth)
Few Tbs. olive oil
1 shallot
2 medium diced carrots
1 diced tomato
1/2 package (plus) of Gimme Lean (ground beef OR sausage style)
1 Tbsp. tomato paste
1/4 cup water
2 Tsp. Italian seasoning
2 Tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 package sliced mushrooms
1 cup raw broccoli florets
Handful frozen corn
Handful raw spinach
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
Salt & Pepper
Chiffonade of basil for garnish


Get yer rice going. It will take a while.

You could certainly use white rice, couscous, or quinoa, but I like the added texture of the brown rice for this. Also, I felt like a giant a-hole at the co-op when I had to ask "um...is this the ONLY bulk quinoa you have right now?"

Slice shallot roughly and add to a Tablespoon or so of oil in a good sized pan with sides. Eventually ALL of your filling will be in there so make sure you have room.

Once shallot starts to soften add carrots. Cook these for about 10 minutes until they are no longer super crisp. Add salt, pepper, and a little water while they cook and then remove from the pan and set aside.

Add another glub of oil to the pan and turn up the heat a bit so your fake meat will get brown. Crumble in about a half tube or maybe a bit more of the Gimme Lean. Once brown, add the diced tomato, mushrooms, Italian seasoning, pepper flakes, and tomato paste. Pour in a bit of water or wine to loosen and combine the paste. Add the carrots and shallot back into the mix and bring everything up to temperature.

Get a pot of salted water going and slice your three peppers top to bottom. Remove seeds and pith and drop pepper halves in the water for about four minutes to soften a bit. Turn your broiler on low.

When your rice is just about done, put in your quick cooking vegetables (the ones you want to have retain their colors) like the corn and broccoli. After a minute or so (remember, these guys go under the broiler too) remove from heat and stir in a handful of raw spinach leaves. Add the rice and mix everything together. Check seasoning.

Stuff peppers with as much filling as they can handle. Any leftover filling can be served on the side. Top stuffed peppers with a generous sprinkle of feta and pop under the broiler until the feta gets toasty.

Garnish with chiffonade of basil. Real good.

Congratulations in Order

My sister's wedding was this past weekend and it presented two particular challenges for me:
1. Holding it together during the ceremony (which did NOT happen)
2. Making a vegetarian, gluten-free main dish for the rehearsal dinner
I thought, very briefly, about doing something casserole-y with rice flour or with rice pasta but this was not really the time for experimentation. This was the time for making something pretty.

I sort of fused the recipes found here and here and added an extra layer of cheese for good measure. But you could do this with just about anything in your CSA box as long as you have a springform pan and enough time to let the torte rest and express all the excess water in the veggies.

Roasted Vegetable Torte - Adapted from Gourmet and Ina Garten, serves 6
6 cloves of garlic thinly sliced
1 medium eggplant, cut into rounds
4 bell peppers, any color, sliced in half and seeded
1 large red onion, cut into thick rings
2 yellow squash, cut on the diagonal
2 green zucchini, cut on the diagonal
2 Tbsp. red or balsamic vinegar
Zest of one lemon
About 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
2 Tbsp. milk
About 1 cup shredded parmigano reggiano
About 1/2 cup finely chopped basil
Good sea salt
Fresh ground pepper
Several Tbsp. very good olive oil (I used some that was infused with porcini mushrooms)

Heat oven to 350 and toss pepper halves with salt, pepper, and olive oil. On a foil covered baking sheet, place peppers cut side down and roast until they are soft and slightly charred (about 40 minutes).

Heat 2 Tbsp. oil over low heat and cook garlic until soft. Turn heat up to medium and add rounds of eggplant in a single layer, turning once, and cooking about 5 minutes total. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Add more oil to the pan if needed (eggplant will absorb the most) and cook yellow squash and zucchini in the same manner.

Turn the heat down to medium low and add slices of onion to the pan with the vinegar. Cook until onions have carmelized and vinegar is evaporated (about 18 minutes)

Mix zest of the lemon with mascarpone cheese and thin with milk until it is a spreadable consistency.

Now it's time for STACKIN'

Spray a 9 inch springform pan (lip side down) with olive oil and place a layer of slightly overlapping eggplant in the bottom. Then cover with a bit of chopped basil and the parm cheese, thusly:

Then the yellow squash, with the cheese and basil:

Then a layer of peppers:

Spread the layer of mascarpone cheese over the pepper layer with a rubber spatula. When the onions have come to room temp, pile those on top. Like so:

And finally the zucchini is the top layer. I arranged mine like a starburst:

Then you cover the whole shebang in plastic wrap and place a plate just inside the springform ring. Place it in a larger, edged baking dish and weight it with three 15 oz. cans of something in the fridge overnight. You may have to drain the liquid at least once to keep it from overflowing.

Release the outside of the springform but keep it on the bottom plate part for serving. It's way too hard to slide off and after all that stacking, you don't want to risk ruining it by doing that. Trust.