Pepper With Feta
“This is an easy light lunch, just a handful of ingredients. Griddled peppers combine the bitter charred flavour with sweet Romano peppers.”
This recipe was created by Vegan Chef Day.
Prep time - 10 minutes
Cook time - 30 minutes
Difficulty - Easy
Serves / makes - 2 portions
Ingredients
2 romano peppers (if you cannot get Romano peppers you can use red bell peppers)
1T + 3T extra virgin olive oil or the oil from a jar of sun dried tomatoes
3T sherry or red wine vinegar
1 red, 1 green small chilli, finely sliced
50g vegan feta
5 caper berries, halved or 1T capers
100g brown basmati rice
50g dried green lentils
Salt, to taste
Equipment
Pastry brush
Griddle or frying pan
Small jug or bowl
Fork
Small saucepan with lid
Method
Cut the peppers in half lengthwise, try to keep the stalk on as it makes the dish prettier. Brush the peppers, on the skin-side, with 1T oil.
Heat the griddle or frying pan on a high heat. Once it is very hot place the peppers in the pan, laying them out, skin side down, so that they touch the pan as much as possible. Cook the peppers until some of the skin is blackened, then turn them over to cook on the inside. Romano peppers are thin so they probably won’t need much cooking for the inside flesh.
Whilst the peppers are cooking add the rice and lentils to a small pan with 400ml water. Put the lid on the pan, heat it on a high heat, once it is bubbling reduce the heat to medium. Once the water has evaporated, taste the rice. If it needs to cook for longer, add a little hot water to the pan. Continue cooking until the rice and lentils are cooked completely. Add salt, to taste. To make the rice fluffy remove the lid, put a clean tea towel on the pan, put the lid back on. This steams the rice.
Make the sauce by mixing the remaining 3T oil, vinegar and chillies. There is no need to add salt to this as the feta and caper berries/capers are very salty. Mix the sauce with a fork rapidly. This mixes the oil and vinegar well, ingredients that naturally want to part. Taste it to see if you want to adjust the amount of oil or vinegar.
Once the peppers are cooked, lay them on a serving plate. Break the feta with your hands, rather than chopping it. Sprinkle the feta on the peppers. Add the caper berries/capers and a few spoonfuls of the sauce. Put the lentils and rice into another serving bowl.
To eat this dish, place some rice and lentils on your plate, top with the peppers, feta and caper berries/capers and lashings of the sauce.
Tips
The brown rice and lentils I used have the same cooking time. If you swap out these ingredients and they have a different cooking time you will have to factor this. In for example, if you use white rice it takes 10 minutes to cook, if you use brown lentils they have a longer cooking time than green lentils.
When gridding any ingredients the oil is brushed onto the ingredient before it is placed on the griddle pan. Oil should never be poured into a griddle pan as it will smoke a lot and not help the ingredient cook.
Pepper With Feta
Ingredients
- 2 romano peppers (if you cannot get Romano peppers you can use red bell peppers)
- 1T + 3T extra virgin olive oil or the oil from a jar of sun dried tomatoes
- 3T sherry or red wine vinegar
- 1 red, 1 green small chilli, finely sliced
- 50g vegan feta
- 5 caper berries, halved or 1T capers
- 100g brown basmati rice
- 50g dried green lentils
- Salt, to taste
Method
- Cut the peppers in half lengthwise, try to keep the stalk on as it makes the dish prettier. Brush the peppers, on the skin-side, with 1T oil.
- Heat the griddle or frying pan on a high heat. Once it is very hot place the peppers in the pan, laying them out, skin side down, so that they touch the pan as much as possible. Cook the peppers until some of the skin is blackened, then turn them over to cook on the inside. Romano peppers are thin so they probably won’t need much cooking for the inside flesh.
- Whilst the peppers are cooking add the rice and lentils to a small pan with 400ml water. Put the lid on the pan, heat it on a high heat, once it is bubbling reduce the heat to medium. Once the water has evaporated, taste the rice. If it needs to cook for longer, add a little hot water to the pan. Continue cooking until the rice and lentils are cooked completely. Add salt, to taste. To make the rice fluffy remove the lid, put a clean tea towel on the pan, put the lid back on. This steams the rice.
- Make the sauce by mixing the remaining 3T oil, vinegar and chillies. There is no need to add salt to this as the feta and caper berries/capers are very salty. Mix the sauce with a fork rapidly. This mixes the oil and vinegar well, ingredients that naturally want to part. Taste it to see if you want to adjust the amount of oil or vinegar.
- Once the peppers are cooked, lay them on a serving plate. Break the feta with your hands, rather than chopping it. Sprinkle the feta on the peppers. Add the caper berries/capers and a few spoonfuls of the sauce. Put the lentils and rice into another serving bowl.
- To eat this dish, place some rice and lentils on your plate, top with the peppers, feta and caper berries/capers and lashings of the sauce.
Notes:
Equipment
Pastry brush
Griddle or frying pan
Small jug or bowl
Fork
Small saucepan with lid
Tips
- The brown rice and lentils I used have the same cooking time. If you swap out these ingredients and they have a different cooking time you will have to factor this. In for example, if you use white rice it takes 10 minutes to cook, if you use brown lentils they have a longer cooking time than green lentils.
- When gridding any ingredients the oil is brushed onto the ingredient before it is placed on the griddle pan. Oil should never be poured into a griddle pan as it will smoke a lot and not help the ingredient cook.