Roasted Stuffed Peppers & Winter Coleslaw

OK! That's Christmas done with. Let's get back to some regular postings about, you know, actual meals, rather than just a festive yet waistline-damaging parade of cheese, cake and chocolate.

As always, one of my New Year's resolutions is to eat more vegetables and fewer oven chips.  I started this resolution in style by making stuffed peppers and a huge bowl of winter-y coleslaw to have alongside.  On the plus side, this meal contains ONE HUNDRED of your five-a-day.  On the minus side, it also requires ONE HUNDRED hours of chopping.  So don't attempt this on a night when there's anything good on telly.

Both of these recipes are based on ideas in this mouth-watering food bible, which my favourite husband gave me for my birthday. 

Roasted Stuffed Peppers (serves 2)

You need:
Two nicely-sized red peppers, sliced in half and stalk/seeds/strange white bits removed
Olive oil
Roughly eight tablespoonfuls of cous-cous
1 onion, chopped
50g pine nuts
Handful parsley, chopped
Handful coriander, chopped
Zest and juice of half a lemon
1 tsp smoked paprika

You do:

Firstly, prepare your cous-cous by following the packet instructions.  Next, toast the pine nuts in a dry pan until golden and smelling delicious.  Soften the chopped onion in a little olive oil until translucent.  Stir in the lemon zest, chopped herbs, and paprika, and then tip in the pine nuts.  Empty this mixture into your bowl of now-ready cous-cous, and add in the lemon juice and plenty of salt and pepper. Stir thoroughly. 

Drizzle a little olive oil over a baking tray, and set your pepper halves on it, cut side up.  Spoon in the cous-cous, filling up the peppers as much as you can.  (Any leftover cous-cous is delicious as a salad the next day.)  Drizzle over a little more olive oil, then loosely wrap the tray in tinfoil.  Slide into the oven at 180 degrees and leave to cook for 45 minutes.

While your peppers are cooking, you can make your accompaniments.  Warning - more chopping ahead! 

Yogurt Sauce for the Peppers

You need:

6 tablespoonfuls natural yogurt

A few sprigs chopped parsley

A few sprigs chopped mint

1 tsp smoked paprika

You do:

Stir all ingredients together until combined.

Winter Coleslaw

You need (coleslaw):

Quarter of a good-sized celeriac, washed and peeled

Two large carrots, scrubbed

Quarter head of green cabbage

2 tablespoonfuls sunflower/pumpkin seeds

(dressing)

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsp olive oil

pinch sugar

1 heaped tsp Dijon mustard

Firstly, toast the sunflower or pumpkin seeds in a dry pan, just until they warm through.  Take off the heat and put aside.  Slice the celeriac and carrots into bite-sized batons, and slice the cabbage into ribbons.  Put all the vegetables and seeds in a bowl, and toss until combined.  Mix up the dressing ingredients, and pour over the salad.

Here are the finished peppers, all warm from the oven and looking like health on a plate:

You can pour the yogurt sauce over the peppers, and the coolness of the yogurt against the warm peppers and the crunch of the pine nuts is really, really, good.  And so healthy!  New Year's resolution, day one, done!