Spicy Stuffed Red Pepper from The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet Recipe Book

This delicious dish is taken from the companion cookbook to Dr Michael Mosley's  number one best-selling publication, The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet . Wife of Dr Michael Mosley, Dr Clare Bailey, has teamed up with renowned nutritionist Dr Sarah Schenker to create a collection of low-cal, low-carb recipes, all expertly balanced and easy to make. Here's how to make their vegetarian recipe for stuffed peppers, taken from the book, The 8 Week Blood Sugar Diet Recipe Book.

SPICY STUFFED RED PEPPER

This recipe was contributed by our great friends Drs Rajsingh and Rai who specialise in healthy Indian food. The dahl stuffing has an exotic nutty flavour, spicy but not hot, and works well eaten hot or cold.

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

2 medium onions, chopped

2 tbsp vegetable or olive oil

250g pack microwaveable Puy lentils (or 400g tin green lentils, drained and rinsed)

3-4 garlic cloves, diced (or 2 tsp garlic paste)

4cm root ginger, diced (or 1 tsp ginger paste)

2 bay leaves

2 cinnamon sticks

2 cardamom pods

1 tsp ground cumin or seeds

1 chilli, diced, or 1 tsp chilli flakes (to taste)

Handful of coriander, chopped

Juice of 1 lime

2 large red peppers, halved lengthwise and deseeded

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

2. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a saucepan and sweat the onions for about 5 minutes, or until they start to turn golden brown. Meanwhile, put the lentils, garlic, ginger, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, cardamoms, cumin and chilli in a medium-sized bowl and mix them together.

3. Season with salt and pepper.

4. When the onions are ready, add the lentil mixture and simmer on a low heat for 8-10 minutes, before stirring in the coriander and lime juice.

5. Fill the pepper halves with the mixture and place them on a greased baking tray with the open side facing up.

6. Drizzle the remaining olive oil over them, cover them with foil and bake them for 10 minutes.

7. Remove the foil and bake them for a further 10 minutes.

TIP: With the flat of a knife gently crush the cardamom pod to release the flavour. If you prefer you can prepare the green lentils from scratch.

CALORIES: 240

PROTEIN: 6G

FAT: 13G

FIBRE: 8G

CARBS: 28

Recipe taken from The 8 Week Blood Sugar Diet Recipe Book by Dr Clare Bailey and Dr Sarah Schenker, with a foreword from Dr Michael Mosley, photography by Joe Sarah.  Buy online here.