Baked Stuffed Bell Peppers

What happens when you take everything that’s fresh and colorful and stuffed to the inside of a bell pepper? This is an amazingly light and flavorful dish – baked bell pepper stuffed with fresh corn, lentils, zucchini, carrots and cilantro. I also added a little coriander and cumin for flavor and some lemon juice to brighten it all up. Finally, this baked dish is complete with breadcrumbs and a dusting of Parmesan cheese. Not only is this a beautiful dish, the vegetables are just cooked; you can taste "fresh".

This recipe is adapted from here. I chose to use lentils instead of black beans for two reasons: 1. I can't find black beans. 2. there are two bags of lentils in my kitchen.

I was going to pair this with a chilled avocado soup. Unfortunately, I used up all the coriander I needed. So I chose to blend the avocado up with coconut milk and agave nectar, and froze it and later left it out in room temperature, for a ice-cream of sort. You can never go wrong with coconut milk - I had to make second servings to satisfy Adrian's needs for satiety.

Ingredients:

2 large bell peppers
1 sweet corn, shucked
1/2 cup cooked lentil
1 small zucchini, diced
1/4 of a red onion, diced

1/2 carrot, diced

juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. sea salt
1 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

1. Preheat the oven to 175°C and grease a baking dish. Slice the very top off of your bell peppers, then use a spoon to carefully hollow them out.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the corn, zucchini, lentils, onion, olive oil, lime juice, cilantro, salt and spices until evenly combined. Carefully, spoon them into the bell peppers until over-stuffed. If you have extra filling, place in the dish around the bell peppers.
3. Top each of the bell peppers with breadcrumbs and generous grating of Parmesan cheese. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Serve with a side of crusty bread, pasta or rice.