Stuffed Roasted Capsicums

This under $20 dish is mince stuffed capsicums served with jasmine rice, fresh cucumber slices and dressed with my Vietnamese dipping sauce. It’s inspired by something my mum made for weeknight meals with Vietnamese seasonings for the base filling, however I’ve also added the option to add other spices and herbs based on what you’ve got at home. So when you add things like parsley, aleppo pepper, sumac and capsicum, it then becomes more Turkish leaning, reminiscent of a Lamachun. The ingredients for this you’ll find in the optional additions section. 

 

This is a really easy dish to prepare, especially if you have a food chopper/processor to quickly blitz all of the filling ingredients. If you’re short on time, I’d plan to make the filling the day before and keep in the fridge to marinate overnight and then on the day of consuming, cut and fill the capsicums and then roast. 

 

If you want to freeze half of this portion, divide the filling into half and place one half into a snap lock bag and freeze. Defrost the morning you want to eat it for a meal and then proceed with filling it into a capsicum half and then roasting.

Serves- Makes 8 portions. It could feed a family of 3-4 twice.

Ingredients- Minimum 9

Skill Level- Easy

Cooking Time- 20 minutes to prep (40 minutes to roasted)

Ingredients

Stuffed Capsicums

• 800g of pork or lamb mince
• 8 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 red onions, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons of fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• Generous pinch of white pepper

Optional additions

• 1 small green capsicum, finely chopped
• 1 bunch of parsley or any other wilting herbs in the fridge finely chopped. I added a few stalks of spring onion
• 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
• 2 teaspoons of soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste or sriracha
• Any spices you have on hand- sumac, urfa chilli flakes and aleppo pepper are great if you want to make it turkish/lahmacun leaning. Otherwise others like paprika, cayenne pepper, even some cumin would be great.

Serve with

• 1 cup of cooked jasmine rice, per person
• 2 tablespoon of Vietnamese Dipping Sauce, per person
• 10 slices of Lebanese cucumber, per person

Method

1. Place mince and all of the filling ingredients into a bowl and mix until combined. Set aside covered in fridge to marinate overnight or at least 30 minutes before cooking.
2. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius.
3. To prep the capsicums, cut in half lengthways and then remove the inner section and all seeds so the cavity of the capsicum is clean. 
4. Fill each half with the mince filling and push down until full.
5. Place onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and roast in the oven for 40 minutes or until the filling is golden brown and the capsicum is soft and almost blistered.
6. Serve each capsicum half on top of a plate of rice alongside some cucumber slices. Ladle some Vietnamese dipping sauce over the capsicums and rice and enjoy!

Watch the Process

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