Risotto Stuffed Peppers

About six weeks ago I decided to become a vegetarian. I’ll save all the reasons that made my decision for another time, but they’re all the usual ones. I didn’t eat a great deal of meat before, and I’m actually quite annoyed with myself that I didn’t go veggie before now because it’s a lot easier than I had expected. Since changing my diet I haven’t missed meat at all, however there are a few recipes that I do miss making, so in order to combat this I’ve recently been back through my cookbooks to see what I can substitute from my old favourites, and to pick of some vegetarian recipes that I may have missed or ignored in the past.

One of my favourite recipe books is The Philadelphia Cookbook (you know, the people that make the cream cheese) and I’ve found that there are a lot of vegetarian ideas in there which pleases me enormously. I recently tried their stuffed peppers and I thought I’d share the basic recipe and a few snaps with you because it tasted really great and was really simple.

These roasted peppers are stuffed with a tomato risotto mix which made them really creamy and filling. I’ve tried a few stuffed pepper recipes in the past and while I liked them, I often found them to be quite dry, although I guess that could be my culinary skills!

  

To make four servings you’ll need four red peppers, some sundried tomatoes (the recipe says 12 but I used more), garlic, 200g Arborio rice, olive oil, 100g soft philly and 3 tsp red pesto. The recipe also says to add toasted pine nuts but I forgot to buy any so didn’t use them this time, and I added half an onion too.

The method is really easy, just halve the peppers and empty out the seeds, then put the tomatoes and chopped garlic inside. You then drizzle the peppers with olive oil and roast on a tray in a 200˚C oven for about 25 minutes.

Then make the risotto mix as normal and once cooked add the philly, pesto and nuts, if using, to the rice and stir together. If you’ve never made risotto before the directions should be on the pack but you basically cook the onion and dry rice in a large saucepan until the onion is soft, then add 500ml of vegetable stock a ladle full at a time until the rice has absorbed the liquid and is fairly soft.

Once the peppers are ready, removed from the oven and take the tomato and garlic from inside. Stir them into the risotto and then scoop the mix back inside the peppers and warm through in the oven for a further five minutes. And that’s it, all done! I served mine with salad and it was really scrummy, but I think it would be nice with a side of green beans or crusty bread too.

I’m really looking forward to making these again and trying out some other veggie recipes from the book. Their dessert ideas are just as mouth-watering, so this book is a firm favourite of mine.