Baked red pepper with pilau rice, tomato sauce and sour cream
Author: Matei Baran
Serves: 4
Ingredients
- 2 onions
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 celery sticks
- olive oil
- 250g basmati rice, rinsed and drained
- 1 tbsp turmeric
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 litre vegetable stock
- salt and pepper
- 4 large red peppers
- 1 carrot
- 500g fresh tomatoes, chopped
- 250ml tomato juice
- 150g sour cream
- fresh dill tips to garnish
Method
- Finely dice 1 onion, 1 clove garlic and 1 celery stick.
- Gently cook in a pan with a little olive oil until softened.
- Add rice, turmeric and cinnamon and cook for 2 mins.
- Add 600ml of the vegetable stock, cover and cook over a low heat for 20 mins.
- Season well.
- Remove from heat and set aside
- Preheat oven to 160C/Gas 3.
- Cut the top off the red peppers and set aside.
- Remove the seeds and pith, scraping out gently with a knife.
- Stand peppers in a deep baking tin, fill each with the rice mixture and replace the top on each.
- Pour the rest of vegetable stock into the tin and bake in the oven for 30 mins.
- For the tomato sauce, peel and dice the carrot, the remaining celery stick and onion, put in a pan with a little olive oil and cook over a medium heat until golden brown.
- Add chopped tomatoes and tomato juice, cover and cook over a low heat 30–40 mins.
- If too thick, add a cup of water.
- Season well.
- Put the mixture into a blender and whiz until smooth, then pass through a sieve.
- Place a couple of small ladles of tomato sauce into each bowl.
- Put a pepper on top of the tomato sauce and serve with a dollop of sour cream, a sprig of fresh dill and the top of the pepper.
