stuffed peppers

Good morning everyone!

I'm happy to tip my toes into the blogosphere again. Hospital is great but also so intense: at the end of the day my brain is so mushed that I can't fathom writing coherent words.

Cooking proper food has been a struggle throughout the winter term. I was very low and demotivated, which reflected on my (non) cooking. I ended up absolutely exhausted by the end of term and almost fainted after giving blood. And I don't do fainting (no offence to anyone who does).

It prompted some questioning: am I eating right? Am I getting enough protein? I realised that last year I was cooking a lot more, combining pulses and grains, not just throwing  chopped tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce in with some tinned chickpeas. 

Right now I'm trying to cook more. And add some fish in the diet, because I can't sustain that level of sheer exhaustion just before exams.

I took the inspiration for this recipe from the stuffed peppers we used to make on the kibbutz.

Ingredients:

-6 peppers

-1 tin of chickpeas, drained

-1 tin of butter beans, drained

-a handful of spinach 

-100g of bulgur wheat (or cous cous or quinoa) cooked and cooled.

- 2 onions, chopped

-2 courgettes, chopped

-2 tomatoes, chopped

-salt

-pepper

-za'tar

-cumin

-2 tablespoon olive oil

-lemon 

Put the butter beans, chickpeas, spinach, olive oil and lemon in a bowl and  whizz with a food processor until it forms a coarse paste. I left some beans in coarser pieces. Incorporate the chopped vegetables and the rest of the spices  in the paste. 

Cut the top off the peppers and scrap out the seeds. Spoon the mixture inside the peppers. If you have any leftover stuffing, you can shape them into little balls and roast them...they are yummy!

Roast in the oven at 180C for 1 hour, until the peppers are roasted on the outside and the top of the stuffing is golden and crisp.

Take them out, let them cool slightly and enjoy (maybe with some tahini on top)!

a vegetarian dinner

"so you have become a vegetarian?"
"yes"...." and what do you eat?"

I had this conversation with a friend from home on Facebook, shortly after becoming vegetarian.
At the time it wasn't hard to answer: everything except meat and fish (translation: Pret salad/kid's cheese sandwiches; porridge, vegetables, eggs and LOTS of chickpeas). When she asked me to cook a vegetarian dinner to show her what I ate...the trouble started. because, despite my amazing vegetarian cookbook, I ended up living of steamed/sautéed vegetables with some pulses or eggs. Devising a proper vegetarian dinner was not going to be an easy piece of cake. Luckily, my friend Mareike came to save me and suggested to take a look to this amazing website, Green Kitchen Stories: I was overwhelmed with recipes and had a hard time picking one.
I ended up making their mushroom and hazelnuts loaf with minor changes and it tasted very good! So here's the recipe for you.

Green Kitchen Mushroom and Hazelnut Loaf
Ingredients:
-250 g leek
-250 g mushrooms
-200 g toasted hazelnuts
-100 g cold boiled brown rice
-4 eggs
-100 ml milk
-rosemary
-nutmeg
-salt
-pepper

What to do:
-Sauté the sliced mushroom and leek with the chopped hazelnuts and some rosemary and garlic for 30 mins on very low heat.

-In a bowl mix eggs, milk, rice with salt, pepper and nutmeg

when the measuring jug is nowhere to be found...running water bottles work well:)

-add the vegetables, after removing the garlic cloves

-put in a loaf tin (or two) and cook in the preheated oven at 180°C for 1 hour.

I also roasted some chickpeas with salt, pepper and nutmeg to serve as an appetizer:

The loaf was very good: it was crunchy to the point but not crumbly and it wasn't dry as I feared! I served it with my mum's signature ratatouille and it was great.

To round off the dinner we had a wonderful ricotta cake (like a cheesecake) that my friend made.

so good!!