Chevre Stuffed Sweet Peppers

I made this recipe for Chevre Stuffed Sweet Peppers with Lime Creme Fraîche Dip a couple weeks ago with some of my favorite varieties of sweet peppers from my summer harvest, it’s so interesting to see how the colors of the pepper change once you roasted. I grew this beautiful little pepper variety called ‘purple oda’ and it harvested the deepest shade of purple, but once it roasted it turned a light blue-grey color. Definitely not as appetizing-looking as the purple, but tasty nevertheless. Especially once you stuff it with fresh chevre, which is precisely what I did.

I also mixed the Vermont Creamery goat cheese with millet for some extra protein, and also because I love the nutty flavor of this grain. If you’re unfamiliar with it, it ends up cooking to a texture similar to couscous, but you can make it softer or chewier depending on how much liquid you add to it. Think of it like rice, some folks like firm rice, and others like theirs almost pudding-like in texture (great for breakfast bowls, fyi). The amount of liquid I have in the recipe here is for a medium soft millet, but feel free to adjust as you’d like. If you’ve found that your millet is too chewy, just add a tablespoon or two more water and let it cook a bit longer. Millet is a very forgiving grain to prepare, which is part of why I like it so much.

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Chevre Stuffed Sweet Peppers with Lime Creme Fraîche Dip

Course Appetizer

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Servings 2 servings

Author Eva Kosmas Flores

Ingredients

Creme Fraîche Dip

• 1/2 cup plain creme fraîche
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh basil

Chevre Stuffed Sweet Peppers

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup millet
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 4 ounces freshly crumbled chevre
• 1 large shallot (finely chopped)
• 3/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 16 ounces sweet peppers (seeded and with caps removed and reserved)

Instructions

Instructions

1. For the creme fraîche dip, mix together all the ingredients in a small bowl until combined. Cover and refrigerate until use.

2. For the chevre stuffed sweet peppers, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

3. Bring the water, millet, salt, and garlic powder to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Reduce heat to low, cover, and allow to cook for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat and fluff lightly with a fork.

4. In a medium bowl, mix together the millet, chevre, shallot, paprika, and cayenne. Stuff the sweet peppers with the chevre mixture, place them in a small roasting pan, and place the caps on them.

5. Roast the peppers in the oven until dark brown patches appear on their skin and the peppers have softened, about 25 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

I also made a little dipping sauce for the peppers with creme fraîche, lime juice, and fresh basil from the garden. If you’re unfamiliar with creme fraîche, it is basically heavy cream that it cultured with a bacteria, much the same way that milk is to make yogurt. But instead of yogurt, you end up with a delicious, rich, silky cream that has a slight tang much in the same way sour cream does, but with a lighter smoother texture. It is the food of kings, and also full of delicious probiotics which help it keep longer in the fridge, too. The lime juice added a little extra kick to it, and the basil rounded it out with a sweet herbal element. Both of these paired perfectly with the little stuffed peppers, making for a really killer late summer appetizer. So if you find any sweet peppers lingering around your farmer’s market or grocery store shelves, you’ll be pleased to put them to use here 🙂

I hope that you all enjoy my recipe for my Chevre Stuffed Sweet Peppers with Lime Creme Fraîche Dip!