Stuffed Peppers

When people have guests for dinner in Turkey, one of the basic dishes they cook is rice stuffed peppers which are usually served cold or at room temperature before or with the main dish . So it's usually placed on the dinner table as an appetizer. We cook them with no meat inside and vegetable oil only. However, people in Turkey also cook peppers stuffed with rice and minced meat and serve hot as the main dish. Well, my mother cooks peppers over medium heat and lets them cool and refrigerates them overnight, but away from the Mediterranean cuisine here in Sarajevo they only stuff peppers with rice and meat or in some rare cases with grated potatoes. Similarly, my mother-in-law cooks peppers stuffed with rice and meat in the oven, always. Her sons recognize them the moment they see the peppers with brown tops which is the proof the peppers were cooked in the oven in her style. Anyway, I decided to combine the two styles of cooking peppers with no meat and baking them in the oven.  I  added all the vegetables on hand to the common ingredients for a change. I stuffed the peppers and baked them in the oven until they got brown on the top. It worked well. There were unfortunately some ingredients missing such as currants and pine nuts which are special to stuffed peppers in Turkey but it had other new stuff inside so they were super tasty in the end. To have a better idea of Turkish rice stuffed peppers cooked with olive oil, please visit http://almostturkish.blogspot.com/2007/07/vegetarian-stuffed-peppers-zeytinyal.html and http://faygsm-thestuffoflife.blogspot.com/2011/06/turkish-stuffed-peppers.html. 

• Ingredients
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• salt, ground black and red pepper, cinnamon, oregano
• 2 cup rice
• bell peppers, seeds and ribs removed
• carrots, peeled and grated
• leeks, sliced

• Directions
• Preheat oven to 200 C degrees. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, salt, sugar, and other spices. Cook until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.
• Add carrots and leeks. Cook until all mixed about 5 minutes. Stir in rice and add 2 cups water. Cook until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Fill peppers with rice mixture. Arrange peppers in a baking dish just large enough to hold them. Add 1 cup water. Cover with aluminium foil, and bake until peppers are tender, 35 to 40 minutes.