Stuffed Peppers

This dish was invented when Secky and I (Sue) had a lot of leftovers from a mediterranean/middle east feast for a "West Wing" night. This recipe calls for a box of couscous, but you can use left over rice, lentils,etc.

4 big bell peppers
1/3 lb. ground lamb or beef
1/2 onion (sweet tastes good with pepper) minced
1/4 c mushrooms, small chopped pieces
1 eggplant; 2/3 for spread, 1/3 for chunks
1 box couscous with pine nuts OR about 2 c couscous plus 1 TBspn pine nuts
1/4 c hummus
4-6 cloves garlic
1/4 c golden raisins
small chunks of olives are also good to throw in
feta in small chunks also delish

herbs (oregano, thyme, zatyr good) & seasonings : add salt if you didn't use the boxed couscous

Turn on oven to 350degrees F-- or you can microwave the whole thing actually

Slice off the tops of the green peppers and clean out seeds, but keep the caps.

Brown meat with onions and seasonings (oregano is good) mushrooms and 1/3 of eggplant in small chopped pieces (or brown  meat & veggies separately if you're expecting some vegans for dinner). Er, expecting some vegans to HAVE dinner. Add the pine nuts to toast if you're not using the couscous box mix.

Meanwhile, cook the couscous;
wilt the the rest of eggplant with garlic in the microwave (or bake or steam). Mush up the eggplant and garlic in a blender, food processor or by hand so it's the consistency of a spread and mix it up with the hummus (or use  leftover baba ganouj and hummus).  If the eggplant is very dry,  you had very lean meat, or you're using rice instead of couscous, you may want to add a little olive oil and water to the eggplant mixture, so it creates a nice sauce inside the pepper.

Stand up the peppers in a glass or ceramic baking dish (tastes better on pepper than metal). Mix together the grain and meat mixture, (or keep separate for some veggie peppers) add other ingreds (raisins, olive, feta) fill the peppers about 4/5 and plop a big spoonful of the hummus/eggplant mush sauce on top. Put the pepper tops back on, and put in oven for about 20- 30 minutes. (or microwave for about 3 mins) I like the peppers still a little crunchy. If you don't like them al dente, put a little water in bottom of pan to steam the peppers, and cook a little longer. With smaller peppers, or pepper "boats"  you can also do these on the grill