Chicken and Rice Stuffed Capsicum

Prep: 45 minutes  |  Cooking: 1 hour  |  Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
• 1 cup uncooked white rice
• ½ cup pine nuts
• 1 carrot coarsely grated
• 4 large green capsicums
• 500g chicken mince
• 3 TBS tomato paste
• 1 TBS olive oil
• 3 cups of water
• Grated parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste

To make:

Stuffing:

1. Cook rice however you choose; boiling, absorption, microwave
2. Toast off pine nuts in dry pan and set aside
3. Add olive oil and onion to pan and cook until soft 
4. Add garlic and cook until fragrant
5. Combine chicken mince with onion and garlic and cook over medium-high heat while breaking up mince until chicken is pale and cooked through (about 10 minutes)
6. Season with salt and pepper
7. Add grated carrot and two tablespoons of tomato paste mixed into 1 cup of water – cook for 5 minutes and then remove pan from heat.
8. Add pine nuts and rice to pan and mix well

Capsicums:

1. Cut tops off of capsicums and clean out seeds and white flesh.  Reserve tops to put back on.
2. Divide stuffing mixture evenly amongst capsicums and top each with some grated parmesan. 
3. Put tops back on and fit into baking pan so that capsicums are tightly packed to prevent them from falling over.
4. Mix remaining tablespoon of tomato paste with 2 cups of water and fill pan so that peppers are sitting in 2 cm of liquid.
5. Cover pan tightly with aluminium foil and cook in oven at 200°C for 50 minutes.  Remove foil and cook for another 10 minutes.

Serve with crusty bread and butter

Inside scoop: If the peppers are wobbly – slice off a bit of the rounded bottoms to make them stand at attention!