Lenten stuffed peppers

Recipe from xmxm:I offer my own Lenten version. We've been cooking this way for many years.

Ingredients:

Bell pepper (small) - 2 kg

Rice (1 fried long + 1 round) - 2 cups.

Buckwheat - 1 cup.

Bulgur - 1 cup.

Onions - 3 pcs.

Carrots - 4 pcs.

Tomato paste - 4 tbsp. l.

Sunflower oil – 200 ml

White cabbage (leaves)

Salt - to taste

Mixed peppers - to taste

Preparation:

I’ll make a reservation right away. Choose the quantity for yourself. I cook for 2 kg of pepper, because I love it very much and can eat it 3 times a day. We clean and wash the carrots and onions.

Grate the carrots on a coarse grater and chop the onion. Place everything in a large frying pan to sauté in 100 milliliters of oil.

My pepper. I always choose small ones because I like to cook them better. And it’s more pleasant to serve.

Perhaps someone else removes the stalk just like me, but I’ll dwell on this point in more detail. Perhaps this will be useful to someone. I press my fingernail on the edge of the stalk, in a circle, until it crunches. Thereby pressing it inward. This can be seen clearly in the photograph.

Then I pull out the entire stalk from the pepper by the tail. I simply pick out the remaining seeds from the pepper with my finger.

This is the peeled pepper we get in the end.

While we were working on the peppers, the onions and carrots softened. Add tomato paste to them. Stir and leave covered for another five minutes on low heat.

And buckwheat with bulgur.

We distribute our cereals evenly over the entire surface of the pan.

Pour boiling water just until the cereals are covered. Cover with a lid and simmer for another five minutes. Turn off the stove and leave it covered for half an hour.

Remove a few leaves from the cabbage and steam them in boiling water until softened.

Tear the leaves into pieces. They will serve as a “stopper” for closing the pepper.

Pour the minced meat from the pan into a bowl. Add salt and pepper mixture. Add another 100 milliliters of oil. Mix. There should be a lot of oil.

Let's start the stuffing process. Stuff the peppers with minced meat using your hands. Not tightly, as rice, buckwheat and bulgur will still swell. If it's too packed, the pepper will simply burst during cooking. Cover the pepper with a piece of cabbage leaf.

Place the peppers in a cauldron. It is advisable to fold it while standing. If you add a few peppers at the end, that’s not a problem either. We lay them with the holes facing each other.

Fill with cold, salted water. Even if the top pepper is not covered with water, we don’t worry. It will still steam. Cover the cauldron with a lid. We send it to the stove. When the water boils, reduce the heat to low, the water should barely bubble. Cook in this way for 1.5 hours. Turn off the stove and leave it covered for at least another hour.

I have cooked this pepper hundreds of times, and there was always either minced meat or pepper left over. This time there was about 2-3 peppers left in minced meat. We put it in a bag and put it in the freezer. Until the next cooking.

The dish is ready. We invite everyone to the table.

Bon appetit.

Step 1: prepare the vegetables.

First of all, let's start chopping the vegetables. Remove the skins from the onion with a knife, cut off the roots, rinse under cold running water and place on a cutting board. Cut into small pieces of arbitrary shape until 1 centimeter and place on a clean plate. Next, peel the garlic and chop it on a cutting board, the smaller the better. After that, we remove it to the onion pieces and move on to the tomato. We thoroughly rinse the red vegetable under running water, dry it with paper kitchen towels and place it on a cutting board. Using a knife, cut the tomato into medium cubes until 1.5 centimeters and put it in a separate clean plate.

Step 2: wash the rice.

Pour a glass of rice into a deep plate and fill it with clean water. Then mix with a tablespoon and drain the cloudy water. After this, fill it with clean water again, mix and drain. We repeat this procedure several more times so that the water ultimately remains clean. The last time we drain the water through a colander, since we need to completely get rid of the liquid.

Step 3: Fry the ingredients.

Place the frying pan on the burner and pour in vegetable oil. Turn the stove temperature to medium and wait for the fat to heat up. After this, put the chopped garlic and onion in a container and fry until golden brown.

Step 4: Boil the rice.

Then put the washed rice in the pan and, stirring constantly with a kitchen spatula, fry until transparent. After this, add chopped tomatoes, broth and 2 cups of clean water, season everything with chili powder and bring the contents to a boil. As soon as the liquid boils, reduce the temperature of the stove and cover the container with a lid. Cook the rice until completely cooked for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally with a kitchen spatula so that it does not burn.

Step 5: prepare the bell peppers.

We wash the bell peppers under running water and, using a knife, carefully cut out the seeds and membranes, without disturbing the integrity of the vegetable, so that when baking, the filling does not fall out of the pepper. Then we rinse them again under running water and place them on kitchen towels. Next, turn on the stove temperature to a high level, pour clean water into the pan and place it on the burner. Bring the liquid to a boil and place the washed peppers in boiling water. Keep them for 4 minutes and remove them from the water using a slotted spoon. Immediately after this, rinse the vegetables under cold running water and place them in any convenient container.

Step 6: prepare the filling.

After the rice is cooked, turn off the heat and place the contents in a deep plate. Mix the rice with vegetables with a tablespoon and add salt to taste. Open the can of beans and pour the liquid into a colander. After this, we transfer it to the rice and finally mix our filling for the peppers.

Step 7: form the dish.

Carefully grease the baking dish with vegetable oil and, armed with a teaspoon, begin to put the lean filling into the peppers. Place the stuffed vegetables tightly next to each other in the pan so that they do not fall during baking.

Step 8: bake lean peppers.

Preheat the oven until 220 degrees Celsius and remove the pan with the dish to bake for 20 minutes. During this time, the peppers will bake and the filling will dry out a little. We take the aromatic stuffed vegetables out of the oven, using oven mitts to help us, and we are ready to serve.

Step 9: Serve the lean stuffed peppers.

Lenten stuffed peppers are served hot. They can be decorated with lemon slices, avocado, finely chopped herbs, and chopped vegetables. You can serve lean mayonnaise or mustard as a sauce, it depends on your taste, in any case, our hearty second course is ready. Bon appetit!

If you have garlic, you can use it to mince a clove of garlic.

You can use either white or red beans in this recipe.

You can add various other vegetables to the filling, such as carrots, zucchini, bell peppers, fresh chili peppers, as well as parsley, dill or green onions.

Instead of chili powder, you can use any other aromatic spices of your choice.

“I miss you, but not cooking. 🙂 Meanwhile, it’s the third week of Lent, which I decided to keep this year. Inspiration, so to speak, descended on me... And now I am constantly in search of interesting, tasty recipes that are suitable for the table of a fasting person. But not many are suitable, I confess to you, because Lent is very strict. However, I found a way out of the situation: the “for vegans” section of all kinds of culinary sites is so pleasing with its abundance that I don’t have time to cook everything that my eye catches. But today I’ll tell you about my home recipe delicious lean stuffed peppers. Tried and tested. So, feel free to dive under the cat - all the details are there. 😉

Let's take:

• 7-9 bell peppers
• 1 large onion
• 1 large carrot
• approximately 500 gr. any mushrooms (except for champignons - this time I used frozen porcini mushrooms)
• rice (boiled or raw) 1.5 cups cooked
• vegetable oil for frying onions and carrots

This time I took steamed long grain rice, so I decided to pre-cook it in a separate saucepan.

But usually I take short-grain rice and put it raw... Then see for yourself which one you like best... The fact that the rice will have time to cook is for sure.

Hard varieties of rice take longer to cook and therefore, in my opinion, it is better not to use it for vegetable filling, but if you cook peppers stuffed with meat, then definitely only raw rice goes there...

While the rice is cooking, I peel the onions and carrots, and send them to a preheated frying pan with a small amount of vegetable oil, first chop the onion (you can just finely chop it into cubes if you don’t have this wonderful grater), and after a few minutes, when the onion becomes transparent , I also send carrots there (in the absence of a vegetable grater, they need to be grated on a regular coarse grater)…

While the carrots and onions are agreeing on who is the most rosy and white, I start peeling the bell peppers. Using a knife, I carefully make a slit near the stalk and cut out this very stalk along with the seeds using deep cuts. I pick out the rest with my fingers and rinse with water to remove the seeds... This is a matter of skill - the main thing is to try not to cut through the pepper itself. It turns out like this...

Then I take a large saucepan (usually I have 7 peppers and they fit in a 5-liter saucepan, but this time I swung up to 9 peppers, and therefore my largest one came to my aid - a 10-liter saucepan), and there I “park” the peppers. What does it mean? I shuffle them this way and that, choosing the most dense and convenient arrangement. Like Tetris of peppers. I haven't been practicing for long...

Because carrots and onions are already ready to embrace mushrooms. I put a little onion and carrot aside...

Then frozen porcini mushrooms go into the frying pan, you can take any mushrooms that you usually eat... Butter mushrooms, oyster mushrooms... But champignons, for my discerning taste, will not give the desired effect due to the fact that they are not very aromatic... But if you like champignons - you can have them too... So, mushrooms are added to carrots and onions, stewed under the lid for 10-15 minutes. About 3-5 minutes before the minced meat is ready, I salt it. Salt and pepper - see for yourself to taste.

During this time, the rice was already cooked and sent to cool with the lid open on the balcony... When the rice has cooled a little and the mushrooms and vegetables are completely ready, I mix the rice and mushrooms...

Every I take it from the pan and return it to the place that was prepared for it at the time of the preparatory stage... When the first layer is filled, I distribute a little of the onions and carrots that were previously set aside on top of the peppers...

Then I add a second layer of peppers. And again I cover the top with onions and carrots...

I literally pour 200 ml of clean water, add a little salt and close the lid. First, I turn on the maximum heat on the burner (I have 6), and when I hear that the peppers have started to boil, I turn the heat down to 2 and simmer the peppers under the lid for 40-60 minutes.

The degree of readiness will depend on the peppers themselves: when they become completely soft and slightly change their bright color, then they will be ready. Such lean stuffed peppers They turn out juicy and very tasty!

Photo: Alexander Mychko/Rusmediabank.ru

On days when it is allowed to include fish in the menu, you can also prepare many delicious dishes.

Fish soup with pepper and spices

Required 1 kg of fish, 4 potatoes, 4 tomatoes, 2 peppers (red and green), 100 g fennel, 2 onions, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 lemon, 1 teaspoon each of cumin, ground cinnamon and paprika, olive oil, salt taste.

Clean the fish, rinse, cut into pieces. Place the fish in a saucepan and add water so that the fish is just covered with water, add salt and cook until tender.

Cut the onions into half rings, cut the garlic into slices. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and, stirring, fry the onion, fennel and garlic.
Peel the sweet pepper pods from seeds, cut the pepper into cubes, add to the pan with vegetables and fry everything together for 5 minutes.

After this, pour 2 liters of water into the pan, bring to a boil and add the diced potatoes. When the soup boils again, season it with spices and salt to taste.

Peel the tomatoes, cut into small pieces and add to the soup. Pour in the strained fish broth and juice squeezed from a whole lemon, add the fish pieces, bring to a boil and remove from heat.

For variety, you can add shrimp or squid to the fish soup at the end of cooking. The shrimp must first be peeled from the shell, and the squid must be peeled from the film and cut into small pieces or strips.

Fish with onions

Required 500 g white fish, 2 onions, 2 sweet peppers, 1 carrot, 1 lemon, 3 tomatoes, 3 cloves of garlic, parsley, cilantro, 1 tbsp. spoon of vegetable oil and flour, 1 cup of walnut kernels.

Boil the fish until half cooked.

When the broth boils, add grated carrots and season.

Cut the fish into portions and strain the broth.
Fry chopped onion with flour in vegetable oil, add broth. When it boils, place the fish in the thickened sauce, season with garlic, cilantro and parsley. Add chopped tomatoes, nuts, pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve with herbs and lemon.

Peppers or zucchini stuffed with fish

Required 8 sweet peppers or 4 zucchini, parsley, 450 g pike fillet (other fish is also possible), 400 g boiled rice, 10 g ginger root, 1 red pepper pod, 2 tbsp. spoons of lemon juice, vegetable oil, salt and ground black pepper to taste.

Remove the core from the sweet pepper, and if you use zucchini, then make “baskets” from their halves.

Cut the fish into small pieces, season and fry until half cooked. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Beat with chopped ginger and parsley until thick. Mix with rice.

Stuff peppers or zucchini “baskets” with this minced meat, season with more hot pepper and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Fish with eggplant caviar

It is better to take fish that has few bones (pink salmon, flounder, pollock, etc.). Cut it into portions, salt and pepper, bread in flour and fry in vegetable oil.

Cut 2-3 onions into rings and also fry.

Place everything in a frying pan, onion on top and pour eggplant caviar.
You can buy caviar in the store, or you can cook it yourself.

For preparing caviar Bake the eggplants in a casserole dish on the stove or on a baking sheet in the oven. Cool, let the bitterness drip off, peel, add 1 finely chopped onion and sauté. Add 3-4 chopped fresh tomatoes or 1-2 tbsp. spoons of tomato paste, 1-2 cloves of chopped garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Mix everything well and simmer until tender for 5 minutes.

Place the fish covered in eggplant caviar in the oven for 7 minutes.

This dish can be served both hot and cold.

Here's another recipe, but this time with mushrooms.

Stuffed peppers

Required 3 large, preferably multi-colored, bell peppers, 100 g of long-grain steamed rice, 2 onions, 1 carrot, 300 g of fresh champignons, 2 tomatoes. In addition, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of tomato paste, a handful of flour, olive or sunflower oil, salt, ground black pepper and ground chili pepper to taste.

Remove seeds from peppers and prepare the filling. Finely chop the champignons, 1 onion, carrot and 1 tomato. Stew them in a small amount of water or fry them in vegetable oil (as you prefer). Add cooked rice, stir, salt and pepper to taste. Keep on fire for a minute and leave to brew under the lid.

To make the dressing, simmer the second onion and tomato in a separate frying pan (if you prefer, you can also fry the vegetables first and then simmer). Bring the vegetables until soft and add tomato paste and flour. Stir and heat.

Place the dressing in a cast iron or thick-walled saucepan, gradually adding boiling water. You need to calculate it so that the peppers dipped in the sauce stick out a little, but this is a matter of taste.

Place the stuffed peppers in the sauce, bring to a boil, cover with a lid and simmer over low heat for about 45 minutes. Let it brew.

Another tasty and healthy soup can be prepared on fasting days. By the way, those who want to lose extra pounds can take note of it.

Roasted vegetable soup

Required 2.5 liters of vegetable broth, 4 small potatoes, 2 tomatoes, 1 sweet red pepper, 1 carrot, 1 onion, 1 teaspoon of cumin, 2 bay leaves, vegetable oil, salt, ground black pepper to taste.

Wash the potatoes and carrots, peel and cut into small cubes. Cut the sweet pepper pod in half, remove the seeds and stem and cut the pepper into large strips. Cut the tomatoes into 6-8 pieces.

Place the chopped vegetables in a mold, pour in 1/3 cup of water, add salt, season with freshly ground black pepper, cover the mold with foil and bake the vegetables in the oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes.

Peel the onions and cut into half rings.

Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan and lightly fry the onion in it. Add the cumin, fry, stirring, until fragrant and remove the pan from the heat.

Place onion and bay leaf fried with cumin into a boiling vegetable broth and bring to a boil.

Transfer the baked vegetables into the pan from the pan. If necessary, add salt to the soup, stir, bring to a boil again and remove from heat.

In order for the vegetables to bake in the oven, 15 minutes after the start of baking, you can remove the foil from the pan and continue to bake the vegetables with the top grill on.
Due to the inaccurate translation of the name of the spice into European languages, cumin (cumin) is often confused with cumin, but these are completely different spices. There are several varieties of cumin: white, black and a rare type of black cumin called bunium.

Pea mash

For 1 cup of peas you will need 2 glasses of water.

Rinse and be sure to soak in cold water for 6-8 hours, or even better from evening to morning.

When cooking peas, add 2-3 teaspoons of vegetable oil to the water, and salt the peas at the very end of cooking. Cook the peas over low heat until tender.

Then the cooked peas can be passed through a meat grinder or rubbed through a sieve.

Pea puree with fried onions is an excellent stand-alone Lenten dish. You can also fry carrots along with the onions. Vegetable salad is suitable as an addition to puree.

Pea puree, both with and without onions, is a ready-made filling for pies.

And, of course, nothing will give you more energy during fasting than a vitamin drink.

Lavender tea

Required 3 cups water, 2 teaspoons fennel seeds, 1 teaspoon dried lavender flowers and leaves.

In a small frying pan, toast the fennel seeds for a few minutes until golden brown.

Mix fennel with lavender and pour into a teapot. Pour the mixture with hot, but not boiled water.

Cover the container with a lid, let it brew for 5 minutes, then strain. Drink warm or cold.

Vitamin drink with ginger

Required 2 cups chopped chard or spinach, 2 cups pineapple pieces, 1 cup apple juice, 1 teaspoon minced ginger root, 1 cup water, 2 teaspoons stevia powder.

Place all ingredients except water in a blender. Mix thoroughly until smooth.

Continue whisking and add additional water or ice cubes as needed. Smash into glasses.

We are all used to stuffing bell peppers with minced meat. But what should you do if you really want to cook this dish, beloved by many, but there is no minced meat, or you can’t eat it for some reason? There is a solution - you just need to cook lean stuffed peppers with rice and vegetables. The dish turns out tasty, satisfying and, of course, looks no different from traditional stuffed peppers. This dish is great when you do not eat animal products.

Ingredients

• bell peppers (fresh or frozen) – 14-16 medium-sized pieces
• rice – 1-1.5 cups
• carrots – 1 pc.
• onion – 1 medium or ½ large
• tomato juice or tomato preparation (frozen) – 500 g
• salt, curry, vegetable oil.

Preparation

1. 
   Place the pan with rice on the fire, filling it with water at a ratio of 1:1. Cover with a lid and cook over low heat until almost done. While the rice is cooking, prepare the vegetable dressing. To do this, sauté finely chopped onions and grated carrots in vegetable oil.
2. The rice is ready. Now it can be used further. Since the rice will continue to cook in the peppers, it may be slightly undercooked at this stage. Or even cook until half cooked.
3. 
   Put the tomato on the fire. In our case, the tomato was prepared in the summer by freezing. The tomatoes were ground in a meat grinder and frozen in a plastic container. Now it's time to defrost it in a saucepan. If the tomato is in a different form, also put it on the fire and bring to a boil, then add salt, sugar (if necessary), and spices. This will be the gravy. You can dilute the tomato a little with boiling water.
4. 
   Mix rice and sauteed sauce in one bowl. Add a few tablespoons of the resulting tomato sauce.
5. 
   Mix everything, season with salt and curry to taste.
6. 
   Place the finished filling inside the seeded bell pepper. Do not compact it too much, otherwise during further cooking the rice may absorb water and the pepper will tear. Place the pepper in the pan. It is better, of course, to place them tightly together.
7. 
   Pour the tomato sauce over the stuffed peppers and cook with the lid closed for 30-40 minutes. The main thing is that the pepper becomes soft.
8. So our lean stuffed peppers with rice and vegetables are ready. Almost like normal