Herbed Feta Stuffed Mini Bell Peppers

Julesong's Note:

I recently got two pounds of mini bell peppers at Costco, and after eating about half of them raw (yum! they're so sweet and tasty!) we got to the point where I needed to find something else to do with them. Here's what I came up with, and having just eaten one, I can assure you they're absolutely delicious! These can be either baked (which I usually do), or eaten uncooked.

• Total Time: 55 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1 lb miniature red bell peppers or 1 lb orange bell peppers or 1 lb yellow bell pepper
• 1 1/2 cups crumbled feta cheese
• 2 tablespoons sherry wine
• 1/3 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon minced dried basil or 1 tablespoon minced fresh basil
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon dried ancho chile powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt or 1/4 teaspoon salt or seasoning salt, to taste (I use Johnny's)

Directions:

1. Cut the tops off the mini bell peppers and take out the seeds and larger white veins; rinse out with water, then set aside.
2. Put the crumbled feta cheese in a bowl and add the sherry; toss to coat.
3. Mix together well the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl, then add the mixture to the feta cheese and toss to mix them all well.
4. Spray a large casserole dish (I use a large oval white Corning Ware) with an olive oil mister or pan spray.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
6. Stuff each mini bell pepper with the herbed feta mixture, making sure there's a good amount of feta in each pepper; place peppers in the casserole dish.
7. When all peppers are stuffed, place cover on casserole dish and bake in oven for 30 to 45 minutes until peppers are nice and soft and the cheese is melted. If too much of the cheese melts out of the peppers, use a spoon to put it back in. :)
8. Serve and enjoy!

Reviews

[Mitt Kraut]

These are so good. I tried baking the peppers for about ten minutes in advance (during the time I was getting the cheese ready). I thought that might help avoid the leaking cheese. But, alas, I had some of the cheese melt out as well. It didn't really matter though. It was very simple to push it in with a spoon and it stayed in without too much prompting. Most importantly, these are delicious. I bought everything to make it again today... except the peppers! I will make the extra trip to get them. This recipe is worth it. Thanks for posting!

[Simply Chris]

Absolutely fantastic! Easy to make and what a hit they were. Made them for the first time last week and DH asked for them again tonight. I followed the recipe exactly except for substituting regular chili powder for the Ancho Chili, as I did not have any on hand. Awesome! Thanks for posting!

[karen in tbay]

Great success with coworkers and family. This recipe peaked my interest but we had never purchased mini bell peppers before or really noticed if available here. So you can imagine my surprise when I found a 2lb pkg in my fridge the day after my DH did groceries and I hadn't even mentioned this recipe. He also bought some garlic feta along with the regular stuff so I used 1/2 cup garlic feta plus 1 cup regular and omitted the salt. I was dismayed when I pulled the pan out of the oven to find the cheese covered the base of the pan but it hadn't ALL leaked out of them as it looked and was very quick and easy to push back inside each pepper. I used asaigo cheese as I always sub for the parm cheese due to cost. I served them cold after cooking the 45 mins since I was at work. Handing out the recipe tonite when I go into work as many requests.