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Zombie Peppers

Andrew Walker

Featuring:
Red Pepper icon
Peppers
Effort:
Complexity:
Cost:
In season now

Serves: 4

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

4 peppers in a mix of colours, tops cut off and seeds and pith discarded

1 mug of rice (white or brown)

2 onions, diced

1 large or 2 small beetroot (raw or cooked), grated

50g lighter grated mozzarella and grated Cheddar

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 handful fresh parsley or basil, roughly chopped (optional) and/or 2 tsp dried mixed herbs or dried thyme/basil

Black pepper

1 tbsp oil

Veg Portions / Serving: 2

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Originally appeared in the Eat Them To Defeat Them 2020 Activity Book | Photography by Claire Wright | addsomeveg.com

These petrifying peppers will make a real monster of a meal! Make sure you make our easy, spooky zombie peppers for the family tonight.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Use a sharp kitchen knife to cut a spooky face into each pepper.

Cook the rice by following the instructions on the packet.

Fry the onions in 1 tbsp oil over a medium heat until see-through (about 5 minutes).

Add the cooked rice along with the grated beetroot, grated cheese, Worcestershire sauce, and fresh and/or dried herbs. Taste and add some black pepper if needed.

Mix well, then spoon into the peppers. Place the lids of the peppers back on top of the stuffed peppers.

Roast peppers in the oven for about 45 minutes, or until softened but still holding their shape.

Pop a zombie pepper on your plate and get stuck in to your stuffed-up pepper.

 

Power Up: Vary the stuffing by using leftover chilli con carne or veg chilli, veg-loaded couscous or pasta in tomato sauce!

Watch It: See the video on how to make this recipe here.

Download it: Make sure you download the recipe card, along with the rest of the vegetable files and activities here.

Engaging Kids

Engaging Kids

Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating.

Kids in the kitchen

Kids in the kitchen

Kids can:

  • Help them carve the peppers (you may need to do this for younger ones, but they can decide on what sort of face to carve)
  • Measure out the rice and water
  • Mix all the stuffing ingredients together, spoon the rice mixture into the peppers and place the tops back on
Activities

Activities

While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging hands off activities like arts & crafts, puzzles & games or at-home science experiments can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory. Use these veg-themed activities as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. We have loads of crafty downloads here, puzzles here, and quirky science with veg here.

Sensory

Sensory

Once you feel your child is ready to engage a little more, you can show them how to explore the veg you have on hand with their senses, coming up with playful silly descriptions of how a veg smells, feels, looks, sounds and perhaps even tastes. Find ideas, videos and some simple sensory education session ideas to get you started here.

Serving

Serving

The moments before food is offered can be a perfect opportunity for engagement that can help make it more likely a child will eat it! Giving children a sense of ownership in the meal can make a big difference to their feelings going into it and the pride they take in it. You know your child best, but if you aren’t sure where to start, we have some fun and simple ideas for easy roles you can give them in the serving process over here.

Andrew Walker

Andrew has trained and worked as a chef, sommelier and maître d' across fine dining establishments and has been working with the Compass Group for 28 years, most recently as Executive Chef at Chartwells. Along with Allegra McEvedy, Andrew is the chef face of the Super Yummy Kitchen project.

www.youtube.com/channel/UCyu3g1IGSmMJAqGQGOJr7MA

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