Spring dinner

 

I had a mini dinner party on Monday night. I wanted it to have a spring time feel to celebrate the incoming season... It's been a while since I posted a recipe (mostly because I think I've written my most regular meals already!) but these stuffed capsicums were the shiz! I based them on Smitten Kitchen's recipe but decided to "spring" them up a little by replacing the feta with haloumi and adding corriander. I served it with this amazing salad which I didn't tweak at all. Seriously. Those croutons. They will blow your mind. And Nigella's hasselback potatoes, with the addition of rosemary.

You need:
* 1&1/4 cups of vegetable stock
* 2/3 cup of cous cous
* 4 extra-large or 5 large capsicum, red are sweetest
* 1 finely chopped onion
* 3 zucchini, halved lengthwise then sliced across thinly
* 6 yellow squash, halved lengthwise then sliced across thinly
* few sprigs of fresh oregano
* 1/2 teaspoon of cumin seeds
* 1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half, or more if they are biggies
* 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
* 500g packet of haloumi, rinsed to rid excess salt and chopped into smallish cubes.
* Large handful of corriander roughley chopped
* oil, salt, pepper

Then:
Heat you oven to 180. Gut your capsicums and scapre out the membrane and all the seeds. I kept the tops for decoration, so cut the seeds off them as well. Line them in a baking tray and give them a light spray with cooking oil. Pop them in the oven for 15 minutes, then remove and set aside until your filling is ready.
Put your stock in a large saucepan on the stove and add the cous cous. Pop the lid on and all the liquid will be gone in a few minutes. Give it a stir to make sure there is no excess liquid and that it is not sticking and take it off the heat. In a large frying pan, sautee the onion and herbs in some olive oil until the onion starts to go clear, add the squash and zuccini and cook until they are soft - about 10 minutes. When they are done add them to the cous cous, along with the cherry tomatoes and chickpeas and corriander.
In a small fry pan, fry the haloumi on both sides in a small amount of oil until it is golden brown. Pat off the oil with paper towel and add to the cous cous.
Give it all a good stir and then fill the capsicums up. Pop the capsicums back in the oven for a further 15 minutes and serve immediately.

Dessert was my lemon delicious pudding with the added bonus of rasberry and schnapps sauce (cook up raspberrys and strawberry schnapps and sugar) and some white chocolate drizzled on top. You need some cool white dairy with this dessert because of the zingy lemon. White chocolate, cream or ice cream can all do the job. Nom.