Make Ahead

Stuffed peppers with lamb, nuts and greens

May 16, 2020
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Photo by Greg Flentje
  • Prep time 20 minutes
  • Cook time 55 minutes
  • Serves 6
Author Notes

I'm always looking for another way to enjoy lamb. It's in my blood: my grandfather was a shepherd - I still have his staff. Anyway, I like lamb and my wife likes stuffed peppers. I found Josh Cohen's recipe with lamb, orzo and halloumi cheese and thought it might be a good jumping off point. It was but good luck finding halloumi cheese and I'm on Keto so I wanted to ditch the orzo. For this recipe, I wouldn't necessarily say that you could use beef or pork and have the same result but maybe you could. I wanted some contrasting textures so I used pine nuts and pistachios but I think lots of substitutions could be made there. Same with the spinach, lots of greens could work. Same with the herbs, lots of variety could be had. I wanted a sheeps milk cheese and my kids crave machengo, so here's my stuffed peppers recipe. By the way, Josh's idea about roasting the peppers twice is brilliant so I include it here. —Greg Flentje

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Ingredients
  • 1 tablespoon Ghee
  • Some chopped fresh sage
  • 1/2 pound Machengo cheese, grated
  • 1 pound Ground Lamb, you'll want a little fat in it
  • Kosher salt
  • 6-10 Cloves of Garlic minced
  • 1 Large onion, chopped
  • 1 14.5 oz diced tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup Pine Nuts
  • 1/2 cup Shelled Pistachios
  • 6-8 ounces Spinach or other greens roughly chopped
  • 1 teaspoon Ground red pepper (I used Deggi but cayenne and many others would do)
  • 2 teaspoons Ground cumin
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons Ground Allspice
  • 6 Bell Peppers, mix and match colors
  • 1/4 cup Chopped fresh dill
  • 1/4 cup Chopped fresh oregano
  • 1/4 cup Chopped fresh basil
  • 1/4 cup Chopped fresh mint
  • Some chopped fresh sage
  • 1/2 pound Machengo Cheese, grated
Directions
  1. Preheat the oven to 450 F Cut the peppers in half and remove stems, pith and seeds. Lay them out on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and give a grind of salt and black pepper to each half. Roast for 25-30 minutes.
  2. Toast the nuts in a very hot dry skillet. Pour onto a plate or into a bowl to cool. I didn't chop the nuts but you could.
  3. Brown the lamb in a very hot skillet and cook off all the water to get the lamb to stick a little. Throw in the onions and garlic and get them a little brown, too. Add the tomatoes with their juice and deglaze the pan. Pour in the roasted nuts, the red pepper, cumin and allspice. Stir it up.
  4. Turn the heat off and stir in the cheese, the chopped greens and herbs.
  5. Fill each half pepper with the lamb, nut and greens mixture in an equal amount. Roast another 20 minutes or until the peppers are a little brown and the cheese is melted.

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