1 hr 15 mins (Prep 15 minutes | Cook 1 hour)
Not Too Tricky
serves 4
About the recipe
This is perfect as part of a barbecue spread with grilled meat or fish, or as a tasty summer meal in its own right. My trick is to roast the peppers before stuffing them – they’ll be super-soft and sweet.
Ingredients
4 mixed-colour peppers
4 cloves of garlic
olive oil
75g mixed-colour olives, stone in
150g couscous
1 lemon
1 bunch of flat-leaf parsley (30g)
extra virgin olive oil
2 x 400g tins quality plum tomatoes
1 heaped tablespoon rose harissa
50g feta cheese
optional: natural yoghurt, to serve
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4.
- Halve and deseed the peppers and bash the unpeeled garlic cloves. Put it all in a large roasting tin, drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and season with sea salt and black pepper. Roast for 30 minutes, or until tender.
- Meanwhile, squash, destone and roughly chop the olives, then put them in a large bowl with the couscous. Add a good grating of lemon zest and squeeze in half the juice. Pick half the parsley leaves and set aside for later, then finely chop the rest, stalks and all, and add to the bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and pour over enough boiling water to just cover the couscous. Cover with a plate and leave to stand for 5 minutes.
- Remove the tin from the oven and move the peppers to a plate for a moment. Squeeze the soft garlic flesh into the tin, discarding the skins, then add the tomatoes and harissa. Crush it all with a potato masher and season to perfection.
- Fluff up the couscous with a fork, then divide and spoon into the softened peppers. Sit the peppers in the sauce, crumble over the feta, then return the tin to the oven for a further 30 minutes, or until the sauce is thick and reduced and the peppers are soft and sweet.
- Squeeze over the remaining lemon juice, chop and sprinkle over the reserved parsley leaves and serve with a dollop of yoghurt, if you like.
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