‘Halloween’ peppers stuffed with lamb and cous cous

You can stuff peppers with all sorts of delightful things- today I’ve done a fab combo of lamb and cous cous. Now- if I’d have planned these a little more in advance I’d have probably used courgette instead of carrot and feta instead of mozzarella but I was quite happy with how it turned out using the things I had in stock!!

I can’t take credit for the pumpkin idea- it’s one that’s been floating around the internet for a while! It’s the first time I tried it and my toddler was very excited by the faces peering out at her from the oven!!

This recipe made 9 peppers full with enough filling left over to serve up 2 more meals of just the filling served on salad!

Ingredients-

One onion

2 cloves of garlic

1 small carrot

6-8 mushrooms

500g lamb mince

Mint

Thyme

Rosemary

240g cous cous

3/4 pint of chicken stock

Juice of one lemon

2-3 handfuls of baby spinach

Parsley

Yellow or orange peppers

Mozzarella or Feta cheese

Dice the onions, carrots and mushrooms. Finely chop the garlic, thyme, rosemary and mint

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large pan and cook the onions for 3-4mins until soft

Add the carrots, mushrooms, garlic, mint, thyme and rosemary and cook for another 5-6mins

Add the lamb mince and cook until completely browned, working it with a wooden spoon or spatula as you go. Once cooked drain off as much oil as you can.

Add the stock,

Coulda cous,

And lemon juice (around 5 tablespoons of it)

Bring to the boil then cover and remove from the heat. Leave for around 6mins to allow the cous cous to soak up the liquid.

Meanwhile, roughly chop the parsley and the spinach

Stir the parsley and spinach into the pan and season with a little pepper

Ok- time to prep the peppers! Cut the top off (keep it)

Remove all the seeds etc from inside

If it doesn’t stand up cut a little slice off the bottom to make it flat

Carve your Halloween face! (Or don’t if it’s not Halloween!)

Spoon the mixture into the prepared pepper and squash down so you can fit as much in as you can! Arrange in an oven proof dish and pop into the oven at 180 degrees for 45-55mins