Basmati Stuffed Grilled Peppers

Put the rice in a strainer and rinse that shit. Always do this. Throw the tomato in a food processor and puree it until it is just chunky juice. You should get about a cup. Chop up the onion, carrot, and zucchini into pieces about the size of a dime. Take 2 tablespoons of the chopped onion and put it aside. You will use that shit in a minute.

In a big pot with a lid, heat the olive oil up over a medium heat. Add the big portion of onion and let it cook until it starts soften and get golden in some spots, like 5-7 minutes. Add the carrot, zucchini, oregano, thyme, and paprika. Cook for about 1 minute. Add the rice, pureed tomato, garlic, and broth. Throw in a pinch of salt and bring it all to a boil. Once it is boiling, cover the pot, and reduce the heat to low so it cook at a gentle simmer. Let it go for like 30-40 minutes or until the broth is absorbed and the rice is tender.

While the rice cooks throw the beans, 2 tablespoons of onion from earlier, olive oil, vinegar, and oregano in the dirty food processor and run it until everything looks smooth. It’s cool if there still are some tomato bits in there. Add a little pepper and stir that shit in. Taste and then leave it alone for a bit.

When the rice is done, sherry vinegar, and lemon juice to it. Cover and let that sit for a goddamn minute. Taste the rice and add salt, pepper, or more seasoning until that shit tastes good enough to meet your standards.

Chop the bell peppers in half lengthwise and scrape out all the seeds. They aren’t hot and taste bitter so throw them the fuck away. Add a spoonful of the bean mixture inside each pepper and spread that shit around. Toss any remaining bean spread into the rice pot and stir it around so the rice is extra creamy. Add spoonfuls of the rice to each prepared pepper until it is all nice and packed in. This can absolutely be done the night or morning before. Just stop here and store them in the fridge.

 When you're getting hungry, heat up your grill to a medium-low heat. Spray it down with a little oil so that the peppers don’t stick. Spray the tops of each pepper lightly with oil too so those fuckers don’t dry out. Grill the stuffed peppers for about 10-12 minutes. You want the peppers to start to soften and get some good looking grill marks on them. Top with fresh basil, black pepper, and paprika, and serve warm.

* If you don’t have it or the store doesn’t, just leave it out. Not a deal breaker.

** You can use navy, cannellini, whatever kind of creamy bean you got.