5:2 diet recipe for 8 people, takes only 50 mins; recipe has vegetable oil, onion, garlic clove, ginger, tomato puree, ground cumin, garam masala, basmati rice, vegetable stock, red lentil, spinach, mint and pepper.
Spiced pepper pilafs
Course: 5:2 diet
Servings
8
servings
Prep time
10 mins
Ingredients
- Vegetable Oil: 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- Garlic Clove: 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- Onion: 1 onion, finely chopped
- Pepper: 8 peppers
- Vegetable Stock: 850ml vegetable stock
- Mint: handful mint leaves, chopped
- Red Lentil: 140g red lentils, washed and drained
- Ground Cumin: 1 tsp ground cumin
- Tomato Puree: 1 tsp tomato puree
- Ginger: 1cm piece ginger, finely chopped
- Garam Masala: 1 tsp garam masala
- Basmati Rice: 200g basmati rice
- Spinach: 200g bag spinach leaves, chopped
Directions
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan with a lid. Add the onion, garlic and ginger, then gently cook for 5 mins until softened. Stir in the tomato puree and spices, and cook for 1 min more. Add the rice, stir to coat, then pour in the stock. Bring to the boil, tip in the lentils, cover with the lid and leave to cook over a low heat for 15 mins, until the lentils and rice are cooked. Stir through the spinach and mint(see tip below, if freezing).
- Use a sharp knife to slice the top off each pepper. Cut out the middle stalk and scoop out any seeds. Carefully trim the bottoms slightly so they stand upright, but the filling won't fall out. Fill each pepper with the rice mix and place the lid on top. Bake or wrap tightly in cling film or freezer bags and freeze.
- To cook, defrost peppers completely if frozen. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Place the peppers on a lightly greased baking tray and cook for 25-30 mins or until the peppers have softened. Serve with a green salad tossed with cucumber, herbs and a dollop of yogurt.
