Our latest Staple Food Challenge participant is Lexie, who has been volunteering for us as part of her Duke of Edinburgh Award!
Just to recap, the challenge gives our customers, aspiring chefs and influential food writers across the country the chance to guest blog on Bouncebackfood.co.uk and cook a recipe of their choice. The only condition? Their recipe has to include one of Bounceback Food’s staple products that we sell on a ‘one for you, one for society’ basis in support of FareShare UK and The Trussell Trust.
Here’s her AWESOME recipe for spiced pepper pilafs…
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These spiced pepper pilafs are simple and easy to make but taste delicious! This colourful, vegetarian dish is also really good for you. If you want, you could add different spices or chillies, depending on what you like.
Ingredients (for 8 peppers):
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- Small piece of ginger, finely chopped
- 1 tsp tomato puree
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 200g brown rice, from Bounceback Food (they donate the same bag to your nearest food bank)!
- 850ml vegetable stock
- 140g red or brown lentils, washed and drained (some lentils need to be pre-soaked)
- A bag of spinach
- 8 peppers
Method:
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan with a lid. Add the onion, garlic and ginger, then gently cook for 5 mins until softened. Stir in the tomato puree and spices, and cook for 1 min more. Stir in the rice then add the stock. Bring to the boil, tip in the lentils, cover with the lid and leave to cook over a low heat until the rice and lentils are cooked. Once cooked stir through the spinach.
- Slice the top off each pepper and cut out the middle and scoop out any seeds. Carefully trim the bottoms slightly so they stand upright, but the filling won’t fall out. Fill each pepper with the rice mix and place the lid on top.
- To cook, heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Place the peppers on a lightly greased baking tray and cook for 25-30 mins or until the peppers have softened.
What a fantastic recipe, thanks Lexie! You can find more Staple Food Challenge recipes on our blog and if you’d like to either take part or volunteer for us like Lexie, then please do get in touch via [email protected]!
