Stuffed Green Bell Peppers

I continue my obsession with Israeli couscous and the fact that it's the perfect base for mixing and matching different vegetables, nuts, and dried fruits. And this time I wanted to elevate it just a little bit by stuffing green bell peppers with my couscous.

I didn't follow a recipe for this, minus figuring out cooking time, but I used the same preparation for the couscous as the Israeli couscous and peas from a few posts down, but instead of adding peas this time, I chopped up some dried apricot, dried papaya, almonds, and some white onion.

So assuming you've got your Israeli couscous under control. The following directions are easy peasy!

Ingredients

• All ingredients and prep from Israeli couscous and peas post
• 1/4 cup chopped almonds
• 1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
• 1/4 cup chopped dried papaya
• 1/4 cup chopped white onion
• 2 green bell peppers

1.  First, preheat your oven to 350°F. Dice up the dried apricot, papaya, almonds and white onion. I got all of these ingredients at Whole Foods for about $2.50.

Onion, apricot, papaya, and almonds. About 1/4 cup each

2.  After the 10 minutes of the couscous simmering, add the dried fruits, nuts, and onions. Stir and let sit for 5 minutes with the lid on.

The fruit grabs some of the excess liquid and really plumps up!

3. While the couscous is resting. Take two green peppers and slice off just the tops. Remove the insides, the excess white parts and the seeds. I placed them in my tiniest glass baking dish and used a bit of tin foil to keep them upright.

Each green pepper holds about 3/4 a cup of couscous. The perfect serving.

4. After the couscous is done resting. Spoon it carefully into the green peppers. You will have a lot of couscous left over (if following the same portions from the peas post, which was perfect because I can put the rest into a tupperware and take the work for lunch the next day.

Gorgeous!

5. Before placing the peppers into the oven, I covered them loosely with tin foil just to make sure that the peppers don't burn. Bake the peppers for 20 minutes.

Enjoy the sauna, peppers!

6. After 20 minutes, remove from the oven and use tongs to place them in a bowl. The peppers are warm all of the way through and cut like butter using a sharp knife (not serrated).  

Instagram worthy

These peppers are perfect for nights when you are watching The Bachelorette while texting your best friends everything that is happening. Which I guess means, I'm having this dish every Monday night until the final rose. #RightReasons

Cheers,

Kate