Guest Post: Heba of My Life in a Pyramid

I am featuring a few guest bloggers over the week as I vacation in Jordan with family & friends. Today I feature Heba of My Life in a Pyramid, with Egyptian Stuffed Peppers & Zucchini. I am so excited Heba agreed to guest post as not only does she have great cooking talent, but she is from Egypt! So while I am eating the foods mentioned below on my trip to Jordan, let Heba tell you all about how to prepare them! Thanks Heba!

Egyptian Stuffed Peppers & Zucchini (A Guest Post from My Life in a Pyramid)

Sabrina of RhodeyGirl Tests is an amazing cook. How do I know this even though I haven’t yet met her in person? A few weeks ago, I made a recipe that she created just by “experimenting” a little in the kitchen (her words!). Lentils with Zucchini & Mint. This is a great example of a combination that doesn’t automatically come to mind when you think of lentils, or when you think of zucchini or mint, individually. Sabrina has a knack for making a dish with interesting and unusual ingredient combinations taste absolutely delicious! After I wrote a blog post about this lentil recipe on my blog (My Life in a Pyramid), Sabrina asked me to guest post on her blog while she is traveling to Jordan. I was excited and immediately started to think about what recipe I’d like to share with her readers…

I’m originally from Egypt (hence, the ‘pyramid’ play on words in my blog name ;-)) and since Sabrina is currently traveling to the Middle East, I figured it would be most fitting and appropriate for me to share with you an authentic Mediterranean / Middle Eastern dish. J I was fortunate enough to grow up eating mostly traditional home-cooked meals made with fresh ingredients next to a huge salad every day. On special occasions and feasts, my grandmother, whenever she came to visit, always made flavorful Egyptian dishes, such as molokhia (Jew’s Mallow) stew with roasted chicken, goullash (meat pies), and rice pudding.

A favorite meal we ate on occasion is stuffed vegetables. Middle Easterners love to stuff vegetables – grape leaves, green and red peppers, squash, artichokes, onions, tomatoes… You  name it, we stuff it! Colorful peppers especially make perfect containers for various meat and vegetable-herb stuffings. Egyptians like to stuff with meat and rice, but there are also vegetarian options for stuffing. Today, I’m going to share with you one of these recipes for stuffed yellow and red peppers, as well as zucchini. My previous stuffed squash recipe featured an untraditional (but delicious) quinoa-based stuffing. In contrast, this recipe I’m sharing with you today is the tried-and-true Egyptian one ;-). Sabrina made an awesome recipe for vegetarian stuffed grape leaves a while back. That stuffing she put together can certainly be used to replace the meaty stuffing I made if you’re a vegetarian or if you just wish to eat a lighter version of this meal. But, on occasion, you’ll love the taste of the veggies stuffed with meat and rice.

So, without further ado, here’s what you’ll need to make Stuffed Red & Yellow Peppers & Zucchini (Serves 4):

• 4 medium sweet bell peppers (red, yellow or green)
• 2-3 large zucchinis (pick wider ones for easier coring)
• ½ lb organic ground beef
• ½ cup rice (sushi rice or risotto rice work well)
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cups organic tomato sauce
• ½ cup Italian parsley, finely chopped
• 2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• juice of ½ lemon
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Wash peppers. Then, remove stems and seeds. Slice off top for stuffing.
2. Wash zucchini. Then, remove top. Using a vegetable corer, remove pulp.
3. Chop onion finely. In a mixing bowl, add meat, onion, rice, parsley, seasoning, olive oil, lemon juice and mix well with 1 cup tomato sauce.
4. Fill peppers and zucchinis (somewhat loosely, because the rice expands when it is cooked).
5. In a pot, arrange peppers upright and zucchinis on their sides.
6. Add olive oil to 1 cup of tomato sauce, season, and pour over the veggies.
7. Cook over a low-medium flame for about 30 minutes until meat is well cooked.
8. Cut zucchinis in half, while being careful not to break them up too much. Serve hot with the veggies’ own sauce drizzled on top.

I hope you can try making this recipe sometime – if you do, let me know how it turns out! For more ethnic recipes and helpful information on healthy living, stop by at My Life in a Pyramid (and say hello!). Well, I’m really happy to meet all you RhodeyGirl fans! This has been a lot of fun, and I look forward to collaborating with Sabrina a lot more in the future in different ways 🙂