Quinoa, Lemon & Olive Stuffed Red Bell Peppers

For our final week of food and gardens we’ve arrived in San Francisco. Good friends live here, so it’s peculiar that the reason we’re here is in part, because they are not. It’s nothing personal. While Katie and her family explore foreign shores we are guardians of their home and hound, and we are enourmously grateful for the opportunity.

I began thinking about my first meeting with Katie (of Mom’s Kitchen Handbook fame) in Provence in Southern France.  It was an idyllic setting. Overlooking rows of lavender with a Mediterranean backdrop, my moment of awe was watching Katie knock out a Peach Clafoutis, effortlessly, with 3 young girls snapping at her heels. I didn’t even know what a clafoutis was until that moment.

Cut to a handful of years later in Ireland, another overseas rendez-vous followed, during which we were gifted a dozen large brown crab from local fishermen and Mr Moms Kitchen Handbook carried them home snapping in a sack to be cooked. Cooking them took hours, and hours more to dismember them for the Crab LInguine which followed.

So it’s comes as no surprise to me that, after years of thoughtful recipe development as a mom, food writer and registered dietician, Katie’s book “Best Lunchbox Ever” is available to pre-order now with a full launch in July. It’s packed with ideas and recipes for school lunches which kids will love (plus extra for mom and dad too).

This morning, I have an elevated and spectacular view of downtown San Francisco, and despite missing our distant hosts, we’re indulging ourselves.  It’s summer, it’s California, and whatever is growing, we’re eating – truly seasonal, truly local. Garden flat leaf parsley and oregano for salads, cherries, avocados, peppers, this last ingredient inspiring our Mediterranean influenced quinoa stuffed peppers. Incorporating feedback from our dedicated followers this vegetarian recipe replaces the usual rice filling with Royal Quinoa from our trusted suppliers at Andean Naturals.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cooking Time 3 hours HIGH

Servings 4

Ingredients

4 red bell peppers, tops removed and de-seeded.
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp red pepper flakes
½ cup / 2 oz sun dried tomatoes, chopped
½ cup / 2 oz good quality green or black olives, chopped
2 cups broth, chicken or vegetable
1 tbsp Herbes de Provence or Italian Herbs
salt and pepper

Slice the top off the peppers and remove the seeds & white pithy part from inside.

Mix the quinoa, lemon, pepper flakes, sun dried tomatoes, olives, broth and herbs together. Spoon this mixture into the peppers and replace their lids. Place the peppers directly into your slow cooker.

Cook on high for 3 hours, or low for 6.

Remove from the slow cooker and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and any fresh herbs you may have in your fridge or garden (I used Oregano here).

Zen Moment

“What we call a home is merely any place that succeeds in making more consistently available to us the important truths which the wider world ignores, or which our distracted and irresolute selves have trouble holding onto.”

― Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness