The sweetness of the peppers, the slightly spicy filling, the thick, rich tomato gravy, and a mound of fluffy mashed potatoes - Croatian stuffed peppers are Heaven on a plate!
Punjene paprike, as they are called in Croatia, are total comfort food, and really easy to veganise.
There are many, many things I adore about living a nomadic lifestyle, not least, discovering new foods. I much prefer to be wandering around a food market than sunning myself on a beach, and I would far rather discover local food, made and eaten by local people, than dine at a swanky restaurant.
Not because of any attempt to be pretentiously ‘authentic’, or some notion of ‘keeping it real’ (whatever either of those mean), but because from experience, I have found that there’s often a world of difference between dishes aimed at foreigners, and those enjoyed by locals.
Our local market in Rijeka. - I love this place!
Sometimes this is no bad thing; when we lived in Thailand, for example, there was absolutely no way I could cope with the amount of chilli that most of the Thais were chowing down on, especially in salads such as yum som-o and som tam.
Even small kids at the children’s home I volunteered at completely put me to shame with their ability to eat really hot foods.
>le sigh<
Even after living in Thailand for 18 months, and building up an amount of tolerance, I still had to ask for my food to be ‘mai phet’ (not spicy), or ‘phet farang’ (foreigner-spicy – i.e. wimpish). Hence having to learn how to cook Thai food for myself, despite it generally being far cheaper to eat out!
While it’s understandable in places where the culinary tradition relies heavily on chilli (yes, Thailand, I'm looking at you), unfortunately, in the West, all too often I’ve found that restaurants in tourist locations offer ‘toned down’ (read; bland) versions of local foods - either as a one-size-fits-all, in the belief that it will be better suited to the ‘average’ palate of their foreign customers, or ‘tarted up’ versions because the originals might not visually reflect the image (and often hefty price tag) of the eatery.
Whenever possible, I try to avoid anywhere which boasts a ‘tourist’ menu but there have been occasions where I’ve been caught out, and have unwittingly been subjected to dull and uninteresting food, and even in one time in Slovenia, soup which came from a packet.
>le groan<
It’s a shame because I don’t feel that these types of establishments accurately reflect, nor do justice to, what are often truly wonderful local cuisines. A bowl of bean and barley stew, for example, may not look as pretty as cheese lollipops, nor have the dubious novelty value of something served on a shovel in a London gastropub, but it’s good, honest food. It’s cheap, it’s nutritious, it’s filling. And most importantly, it’s delicious too.
Surely these things are what's important?
Stuffed Peppers
Stuffed peppers come into the same category of food as jota in Slovenia, hotpot in the UK, dal fry in India, or even Tuscan bean soup in Italy – all examples of cucina povera at its finest.
Croatian stuffed peppers do not need jazzing up in order to make them delicious, and veganising notwithstanding, they certainly don’t need to be adapted to suit the tastes of tourists (restaurant owners take note – foreigners like to try local foods... the kind eaten by local people).
Served with a wodge (yes, that's a word - shush now) of fluffy, creamy mashed potato, with some of the cooking sauce slathered over the top, they are perfect as they are.
Having said that, I have to admit to being a tad partial to occasionally topping my stuffed peppers with some vegan mozzarella or cheddar, plus a slice of tomato, and placing them under a hot grill (broiler) for a few minutes to bubble and brown.
Oh my!
Croatian Stuffed Peppers
Are...
- filling
- frugal
- gluten-free
- soy-free
- nut-free
- nutritious (Vitamin A 164%, Vitamin C 304%, Calcium 9%, Iron 26% RDV)
- packed with protein and fibre
- comforting
- hearty
- easily adaptable
- delicious
I urge you try these stuffed peppers for yourself, I’m sure you’ll love them.
Dobar tek!
Have you ever had Croatian stuffed peppers before?
📖 Recipe
Croatian Stuffed Peppers… Veganised!
Ingredients
For the gravy:
- 4 tablespoon tomato purée
- 1 litre vegetable broth
- ½ teaspoon Vegeta
- 1 teaspoon fresh savory leaves or ½ teaspoon dried
- 2 teaspoon fresh rosemary needles or 1 teaspoon dried
- 2 tablespoon olive or pumpkin seed oil
- 1 large onion - finely chopped
- 4 fat cloves garlic - smashed
- 4 tablespoon flour use gluten-free if you need to
- Salt and pepper to season
For the stuffed peppers:
- 4 medium sweet peppers
- 100 g red lentils
- 100 g raw rice
- 1 tablespoon ground flax seed
- 2 fat cloves garlic - smashed
- 4 tablespoon parsley - finely chopped
- 1 large fresh red chilli - de-seeded and finely chopped
- 1½ tablespoon smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon liquid smoke
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- Dash sea salt
The rest:
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 small stick celery
- 1 small carrot washed but not peeled
Instructions
Cook the lentils:
- Rinse and drain the lentils, then place into a saucepan, and add enough cold water to cover. Bring to the boil, and then reduce to a low-medium heat, and cook for around 20 minutes, until they begin to soften. You don’t want to fully cook them as they will finish cooking inside the peppers.
- Once cooked, drain, and rinse under cold, running water.
Make the gravy:
- While the lentils are cooking, mix the tomato purée, Vegeta, savory, and rosemary with the vegetable stock, and set aside.
- Gently fry the onion in the oil in a large skillet, until it starts to become translucent.
- Add the garlic, and continue to cook for a couple of minutes, until the raw smell has gone.
- Mix in the flour, and cook for another minute or so, stirring all the time.
- Stir in the stock, a little at a time, and keep stirring as the gravy comes to the boil, and has thickened.
- Taste, and season, then turn the heat off, and set aside while you prepare the peppers.
Prepare and stuff the peppers:
- Cut off the top of each pepper, being careful not to break them as it they will be used as lids once the peppers have been stuffed. Remove the pith and the seeds from each pepper. Set aside.
- Mix all of the stuffing ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
- Firmly pack the stuffing into each pepper, until it’s a couple of centimetres from the top. Don’t overfill or the peppers will split, due to the rice expanding as it cooks.
- Place the peppers into a saucepan or stockpot which is just large enough to fit them in while standing upright. If the pan is too large, they’ll fall over, and the filling will come out, so it’s better to use a pan which gives a snug fit, rather than too much room. Don’t put the tops on yet.
- Carefully pour the sauce over and around the peppers, the put a top onto each pepper.
- Add the celery, carrot, and bay leaf to the pan, cover with a tightly-fitting lid, and bring to the boil.
- Reduce the heat to low, and gently simmer for around 2 hours.
- Once the peppers are cooked, turn off the heat, uncover, and allow to rest in the pan for 10-15 minutes.
- Serve with a pile of mashed potatoes, with the gravy poured over the top of both the peppers and the mash. Or serve with thick wedges of fresh bread.
- Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the 'fridge for up to two weeks.
Notes
- Firm lentils, such as green, brown, Puy, or urad dal, work best in this recipe – red ones have a tendency to go mushy.
- If you can’t get savory, you can use thyme or rosemary instead.
- Unlike the lentils, the rice does not need to be pre-cooked - it will cook perfectly in the gravy once it's been used to stuff the peppers.
- Instead of using lentils, you can use veggie mince (as in the lead image), barley, or some ground-up seitan sausages or burgers. I also sometimes add mushrooms and/or carrots too.
- 1 cup = US cup = 240 ml
- 1 tablespoon = US/UK = 15 ml
- 1 fl oz = US = 30 ml
Kirsty Hijacked By Twins
I adore peppers roasted, they develop such a delicious sweetness. Thank you for sharing with #CookBlogShare x
Nico
Oh yes, me too - roasted peppers (esp. red ones) are gorgeous, aren't they? I love them in salad with some strong rocket, pine nuts, and pom seeds. Yum! xx
Eb Gargano | Easy Peasy Foodie
I LOVE stuffed peppers and this version looks AMAZING!! I had to laugh at your 'authentic' comment. There is so rarely an actual 'authentic' version of anything. I often do a little research when I am trying to create a simple version of a classic dish, to ensure I don't miss anything crucial out and I nearly always discover that there are about as many versions of said dish as cooks who make it. Which is great for me as I can pretty quickly work out what is truly essential for a dish and ditch the rest...but makes me laugh no end when people piously talk about 'authentic' food! Eb x
Nico
When we lived in India, I'd read rave reviews about a certain restaurant not far from our apartment: it was awesome; it had such a wonderful atmosphere; the food was astounding; it was 100% authentic. Now, you'd think that an Indian restaurant in south India *would* serve authentically South Indian food, right? Wrong! It was over-priced, completely aimed at tourists, and the food was dull as anything. South Indian food isn't particularly spicy, and yet the food at that place had been toned right down as to be almost flavourless. And they served fries too! Also, the lighting was horrible - glaringly bright. We went there to celebrate our 10th anniversary, and were so disappointed!
I firmly believe that if you want 'authentic' food, you should seek out a local home cook, an eatery where only locals go, or a street food cart. There's plenty of authentic food around (in its native lands) but most of it doesn't, as you say, have one rigid recipe, so you'll always have variations. My gran's shepherds' pie, for example, was a lot different to my Auntie Rose's, as was her steak and kidney pudding!
If you think about it, most of the foods we love are basically 'peasant' foods, which may or may not have become tarted up as they've travelled to other countries. And given that as foods travel, even domestically, they are adapted to be made with local ingredients and to suit local tastes, it's no wonder it's hard to find something truly 'authentic' outside its native habitat, as it were. But in saying that, is a British Indian curry - which has evolved to become its own thing - any less authentic than one you'd find in Mumbai? Who is to say that what we think of as authentic Mumbai dishes are not evolutions of other foods? In fact, they probably are.
And does it really matter? If it tastes good, isn't that enough? 😉 xx
Corina Blum
These look really tasty! I love good stuffed peppers and I think the liquid smoke in these must help make them extra tasty. Thanks so much for sharing with #CookOnceEatTwice.
Nico
It does - it really adds a depth of flavour, Corina. So very yum! xx
Michelle Frank | Flipped-Out Food
OMG: never thought I'd "meet" anyone else who would prefer a leisurely stroll through a foreign food market to sunning on the beach! Yay! I love a good variety of comfort food, and stuffed peppers have always been a favorite. But they ARE one of those meals where I'm sure I wouldn't miss the meat, so I'm very happy to have found your veganized version!
Nico
I'm pretty sure you wouldn't miss the meat, Michelle - they are sooo good! And if we ever get to meet in real life, we can spend ages wandering around food markets together! xx
Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine
These sound glorious! What a wonderful dinner idea!
Nico
Thanks, Rebecca - I hope you get to try them!
Jacqueline Meldrum
Those look really good and I'm always a fan of mashed potato 🙂
Nico
I remember Nigel Slater (aka The God of Comfort Food) saying that a fluffy baked potato is the food equivalent of a big fat hug - if that's true, then good mashed potato must surely be the riding off into the sunset, and living happily ever after! 🙂
Corina
These peppers so sound so tasty especially with that sauce! I didn't use to be a fan of stuffed peppers until a couple of years ago when I realised how good they can be! Now I love stuffed vegetables.
I also hate it when you are on holiday somewhere and you choose the wrong place to eat and find what should be a really tasty dish to be really bland and boring. I always want to make the most of trying new foods on a holiday so I always feel like I've wasted a meal when that happens. Thank you so much for sharing with #CookOnceEatTwice - I'm sure the flavours get even better the next day!
Nico
Glad I'm not the only one who feels like that about dumbed-down tourist food! We celebrated our tenth anniversary when we lived in India, so we wanted to go somewhere special. We visited a restaurant which had gazillions of five star reviews on Trip Advisor - what a disappointment! The food was so bland, and most of it was Western! We concluded that the people who'd left reviews either hadn't been there, had been paid by the restaurant, or simply had no tastebuds!
I was the same as you re. stuffed veggies, and I put it down to them being the only veggie option in restaurants in Britain in the '80s and '90s! Once I discovered Slavic food though (ironically, when I was in Koeln, Germany, back in 2010), I was smitten!
Eb Gargano / easypeasyfoodie.com
Really enjoyed reading this, Nico. The 'foreigner spicy' thing especially - hilarious! And yes that would be me too. These peppers look so scrumptious and I love the idea of serving them with a wodge (totally a word) of mash - YUM! Thanks for linking up with #CookBlogShare 🙂 Eb x
Nico
I think that wodge should be the official word for lots of mash... y'know, like a pride of lions, a murder of crows, a wodge of mash. Now, who do I contact at the OED? 😉
As for phet farang, yep, I've always been a chilli wimp. Also, too much chilli really aggravates my IBS, and triggers psoriasis flare-ups, so I do have to be careful. I often had to resort to telling people in Thailand that chilli made me sick because their idea of not much chilli and mine were two very different things, so I had to really lay it on thick in order to get them to understand! Fortunately for me, there are many Thai foods which aren't in any way hot! India was much easier - south Indian food tends to be very mild, in my experience... apart from korma. Guess what my very first meal was on the night I arrived in Fort Kochi? Blew my unsuspecting face off! Ha ha ha!
I have exactly the opposite problem in Central Europe; even though fresh chillies are in abundance (dried ones have just started appearing at the market), they seem to be used as flavouring, not heat. One time when living in Rijeka, I bought a bag of chillis - the seller warned me that they were 'ljuti' (literally, 'angry'!); certainly they tasted hot when raw but once cooked... nothing. But they do taste really good. The South Slavs do a fantastic line in comfort food but I think they may be even bigger chilli wimps than I am!
Annette, 3 Little Buttons
These look so lovely! Stuffed peppers are gorgeous, but your filling is new to me and something that looks perfect for an autumn evening. #BrillBlogPosts
Nico
Hey Annette - thanks for stopping by!
Ooh, I love stuffed peppers so much, and as you say, they're so good to have at this time of year. I've been experimenting with other fillings too, and I have to tell you that buckwheat, quinoa, and bulgur all work really well too!
Jenn
I love stuffed peppers!! Love the flavors you used here (smoked paprika, liquid smoke) - some of my faves!!
Nicole
Mine too, Jenn... especially on chilly, rainy days such as we're having here today! Weirdly, although it's paprika-tastic in Slovenia and Croatia, I've never been able to find it smoked, so I have to stock up when I visit the UK!
Choclette
Ooh really enjoyed this post. I am so with you on the keep it local, keep it real, keep it cheap. Good home style cooking is usually the best. Strangely I usually stuff my peppers with lentils and rice and had no idea that was a Croatian thing to do. Sounds delicious and you know have me craving stuffed peppers with a tasty tomato sauce.
Nicole
Ha ha ha, I'd be lying if I said I was sorry that you're now craving stuffed peppers, Choclette!
The lentils are my addition - in Croatia, the peppers are traditionally stuffed with meat and rice... but the sauce is totally Croat!
Becca @ Amuse Your Bouche
The idea of serving these with mashed potato with more sauce poured over the top has just made me swoon! They look yummy!
Nicole
I honestly believe that mashed potato with some form of sauce or gravy (and lashings of it) is one the best things in the entire world. I could probably live on it, Becca!