Romano peppers stuffed with rice, Feta cheese & pine nuts

Ingredients

- 6 large red Romano peppers
- 100gr long grain rice
- 300ml water
- 200gr crumbled Feta cheese
- 2 small shallots
- 3 large medium garlic cloves
- 50gr toasted pine nuts (I toast my pine nuts over gentle heat in a dry pan)
- 2 medium tomatoes, cored
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- A generous handful of fresh parsley
- Sea salt to taste

Method

I start by boiling the rice in the lightly salted water, keeping an eye out and fluffing it with a fork until the water is absorbed (about 10 minutes). I then set the cooked rice aside and leave it to cool. I then chop the shallots, garlic, deseeded and cored tomatoes and parsley finely and add them to a medium-sized bowl. Next, I add the toasted pine nuts, extra virgin olive oil and well-crumbled Feta cheese and give everything a good mix. Once the rice has cooled, I add the rice into the mixture, have a little taste and season as necessary.

To prepare the peppers, I cut the tops (save them for later) and deseed the peppers as best as I can without breaking the peppers. I then stuff the peppers well with the rice, Feta and pine nut mixture and press the top of the pepper in place. I grease a baking dish with some extra virgin olive oil, pour any leftover rice (if any) and add a few tablespoons of water, place the stuffed peppers on top and roast in the oven for about 20 minutes at 200ºC or until slightly charred, whilst never leaving the baking dish to be fully dry (add a few tablespoons of water during the cooking time, if it looks too dry). Leave to rest for about 10 minutes before lifting onto a plate. Serve as a side dish or with potatoes as a vegetarian, gluten-free meal. I could honestly have this for dinner every single day - yum!