Fruit for Thought
What would you do if you have too much aubergine, bell pepper and tomato in your fridge? I had a bountiful of each waiting eagerly for me to consume them, as it had been almost a week since I bought the fruits. Yes, scientifically speaking aubergines, capsicums, courgettes and tomatoes are FRUITS and not vegetables, because they have seeds! I was planning to make a quick one-dish meal one weekend. First off, I was thinking of making ratatouille, but that would be too boring. Furthermore, I live with 3 carnivores and a no-meat dish would not entice them at all.
So I scurried to a nearby supermarket and bought 2 extra ingredients. Chicken and grated cheese.
I knew I would come up with a winning dish *wink*
This!
Mmmm….does this not look tasty and festive at the same time?
A Frugal Regal Meal
I love the colours and more so, knowing how healthy the dish was, plus how economical I could put all the ingredients together for a top notch meal. Gosh, I may sound somewhat cocky, but I can’t help it, because it’s true *wink*
I have adapted only some of the steps from the Thermomix BCB, while the rest are pure common sense, guestimation and creative thinking 😉
Ingredients A
- Aubergines or egg plants, halved lengthwise
- Capsicums or bell peppers, halved
Ingredient B
- 600 g water
Ingredients C
- 550 g chicken breasts, diced
Ingredients D
- 30 g shallots
- 10 g garlic
Ingredient E
- 10 g EVOO
Ingredients F
- 10 g fresh herbs (mint, basil, spring onion, etc)
- 1 tsp dried herb (thyme)
- 1 heap tsp homemade vegetable stock paste
- Freshly milled black pepper
- 150 g tomato, de-seeded
Ingredient G
- 100 g bread (grate in dry TM bowl at 7 sec/ sp 10)
Ingredient H
- Grated cheese
Method
- Arrange A in Varoma dish and tray with cut-side down. Place B in TM bowl. Steam A as per instruction in the BCB. Remove water from the TM bowl. Using a tsp or Tbsp, scoop out the pulp of the aubergines. Chop roughly. Set aside.
- Add D in mixing bowl. Blend for 3 sec/ sp 5.5. Add E and sauté for 3 mins/ 100 C/ sp 2
- Place the chopped pulp of the aubergines, C, F and G. Cook for 15 mins/ 120C/ R/ spoon. Season to taste.
- Fill the shells with the cooked stuffing, cut-side up on a baking tray. Drizzle H liberally on each stuffed shell.
- Bake at pre-heated oven for 35 to 40 mins or until the cheese has melted and turned a lovely golden brown.
This dish goes very well with baked new potatoes or potato wedges. Makes one awesome complete meal 😀
My Verdict?
To be honest, my other half does not like to consume store-bought ground meat. He says there’s too much fat and other-god-knows-what things mixed in the meat. I agreed with him on that, so I made this healthier version of stuffed aubergines and bell peppers. He could not believe I home-ground the meat in my thermie 😉
By the way, this was not the first time I made this dish. I have used store-bought ground meat before and they tasted great, too. The fact that I used lean chicken breast meat and home-ground them, made the whole dish lighter and healthier. Hubby was euphoric over the dish. And my boys? They eat anything that aren’t sloppy looking and with meat. Lol!
The best thing about this dish is, you can use almost any fruit or vegetable that you can scoop out the flesh to make a cavity. Courgettes or zucchinis are great. So are squashes, but the steaming and baking time need to be adjusted.
Will I make this again? You bet! Over and over again. Anytime, because …. It’s cheap. It’s tasty. It’s colourful. It’s healthy. It’s easy!
Have a fruitful mid-week!
Cheers!
By the way ... 
