Lentil-Stuffed Peppers

Until Saturday night I was hardcore Grinching it up, but finally somewhere around midnight, between the music and the snow, good times with friends and the friendliness of strangers, the Christmas spirit totally hit me over the head.

So after a beautiful walk in the endlessly falling snow on the seawall on Sunday I headed for the grocery store and began stocking up for some cooking adventures over the holidays, because what the Christmas spirit is really about is FOOD! Especially of the homemade variety. I'll have a week off over the holidays, and not being able to see my family this Christmas, I plan on staying in with the kitty, cooking as much as possible and letting him eat the leftovers. ("How come Peanut is so fat?" "He's just big-boned.")

The following is loosely based on a stuffed-pepper recipe posted on Facebook by my friend Jess Klug, who recently got married and immediately transformed into a bit of a young Martha Stewart. I added the lentils, and used cous cous because I was out of rice. I've tried just lentils in the past and it turned out too dry, so I thought I'd try lentil soup this time. The resulting cous cous is pretty mushy , even though the taste is so much better. I'll try to perfect the recipe next time, maybe by cooking the cous cous in the soup itself? Or, maybe I'll add an additional can of just lentils... Hmmmm...

Lentil-Stuffed Peppers

6 medium red bell peppers (one of them chopped)
2 cups cooked cous cous
1 cup mushrooms, sliced thick (about 9 mushrooms)
1/2 bunch chives, chopped
1 bundle broccoli florets, chopped
1 can lentil soup
1 cup old cheddar cheese, shredded


Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 300° F.

2. Remove the core and seeds of whole peppers and place into a saucepan containing 1/2 cup boiling water. Cover and allow to steam for 5 minutes. Remove and drain.

3. Cook broccoli, chopped pepper, mushrooms and chives.

4. Stir in lentil soup and drain off excess liquid.

5. Stir in cous cous and cheese.

6. Stuff the peppers and stand them up in a casserole dish. Bake for 15 minutes.

Aside: It is a good idea to not to leave cooking utensils, especially of the plastic variety, resting against the element.