About:

Tomato mint flavoured rice with spices and stuffed in peppers. Peppers/capsicum tastes great either raw or cooked and spiced up the rice with paprika and Indian spices. The yogurt/sour cream is a perfect garnish which gives chill out with its cool and fresh taste.

Serves: 2-3
Preparation time: 10 minutes (excluding the cooking time of rice)
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 30-35 minutes

Ingredients:

For tomato rice:

• Cooked rice- 2cups (I used red rice-any kind of rice can be used)
• Finely chopped onion-1medium size
• Finely chopped tomato-2num
• Tomato puree -1/2cup
• Ginger-garlic paste-2tsp
• Mint leaves-a handful
• Paprika-1tsp
• Turmeric-a pinch
• Black cumin/cumin seeds-1 tsp
• Cloves-5
• Cinnamon-1”stick
• Cardamoms-2
• Salt- as per taste
• Oil-2tsp
• Chopped coriander- a handful

For serving:

• Capsicum-6medium size
• Oil-for brushing
• Low fat thick yogurt/hung curd-1/4cup
• Low fat grated mozzarella cheese-50gms
• Sat-1/4 tsp

Garnishing:

• Olive slices
• Spring onion greens

Procedure:

For Tomato rice:

• Heat oil in the pan; add cumin seeds, whole garam masala (Clove and Cinnamon) saute for few seconds.
• Add onion, ginger-garlic paste and saute for 2-3 minutes/until onions are translucent.
• Then add tomato puree, mint, paprika,turmeric, salt mix well and fry for a minute.
• Add cooked rice, chopped tomato mix and simmer for 4-6minutes/until heated through.
• (I love tomato chunks in my rice so added it in later stage, can add along with puree and cook completely)
• Turn off the heat and sprinkle some chopped coriander.

Serve this rice alone with any yogurt dip.

For stuffing:

• In a bowl combine yogurt/hung curd, salt, cheese and set aside.
• Pre-heat the oven at 180 deg c.
• Wash and cut the tops off the bell peppers, remove the stems, seeds and brush the peppers with oil. Place in the oven safe dish and bake uncovered for 15-18 minutes
• When the peppers are ready, remove from the oven and fill with the rice then a tablespoon of yogurt mixture and bake for 12-15 minutes.
• Once baked top it with olives and spring onion greens and enjoy.

Note:

• Sour cream can be used alternatively to yogurt.