Greek Stuffed Peppers & Spiced Pantry Review

These Greek stuffed peppers are a fantastic alternative to the tradition stuffed pepper. Packed with tons of flavor thanks to spices from Spiced Pantry!

Have you heard about Spiced Pantry? It’s a new food subscription box that takes your taste buds on a tour around the world! Their monthly global foodie box features a different world cuisine including 4 pantry ingredients (think spices, unique grains, legumes) and 4 recipes needed to make the region’s food. It costs a bit more than other spice boxes I’ve tried ($19/month) but you actually receive enough ingredients to make each recipe 2-3 times instead of just once, maybe twice, which is awesome because I definitely want to revisit the recipes I tried and may also get creative with my own recipes.

I got to try out the Greek spice box which included uncooked peponaki (resembles orzo), Athens spice blend, Greek oregano, and mahlab (powdered cherry seeds), and recipes to make chicken souvlaki, stuffed peppers, salad, and braided cookies. Talk about one heck of a meal! I wanted to make them all at once but decided to just do the stuffed peppers and braided cookies for starters and save the rest for another day. Thank goodness I did because these peppers were actually quite filling! They were stuffed with cooked peponaki, zucchini, tomato, onion, feta, and the Athens and oregano spices. Great vegetarian option, but I am tempted to try them with less peponaki next time in order to add in some ground lamb. Wouldn’t that be amazing?

As for the cookies, they incorporated the mahlab spice which I had never heard of until receiving it in this box – which is the whole point, trying new things! Just a teaspoon was used in these shortbread-like cookies which my boyfriend and I made together and had fun rolling and twisting the dough into the braided shapes. It made a little under 3 dozen so I brought a few to work and they were a huge hit. I am bringing the rest to TN this weekend to share with my friends!

After this delicious meal, I absolutely cannot wait to make the souvlaki served with the salad next. I don’t think my Greek-craving taste buds can ever be fully satisfied and I kind of wish I could get Greek boxes every single month! But other cuisines are tasty as well and I look forward to trying some more. Want to sign up and try it for yourself? Use SPIFFYCOOKIE5 and it will give you $5 off your first box (valid through July 16, 2016). It’d make a great Father’s Day present ;-).

One year ago: Oven-Fried Granola Chicken Tacos with Mango Crema

Two years ago: Greek Hummus Dip with Homemade Pita Chips

Three years ago: Breakfast Stromboli

Five years ago: Lunch Lady Peanut Butter Cookies

GREEK STUFFED PEPPERS

Serves 5

Ingredients:

3/4 cup uncooked peponaki (or orzo)

5 medium bell peppers, assorted colors, tops sliced off and seeds removed

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 large yellow onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 zucchini, diced (about 1 cup)

1 (15 oz.) can whole tomatoes, drained and diced

1-1/2 tsp Athens spice blend (or other Greek spice blend)

1/4 tsp oregano

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese, plus more for serving

3/4 cup water

Tzatziki sauce, for serving (I used homemade)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add peponaki and cook for 6-8 minutes, or until al dente. Drain and set aside.
3. In a large pan of medium-high heat, heat the olive oil. Add onions and cook for 3-4 minutes or until softened. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add zucchini and cook 4 more minutes. Stir in tomatoes, Athens spice, and oregano and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the peponaki and feta.
4. Place the peppers in a 2.5 quart baking dish. Divide filling equally between the peppers, replace lids, and pour water into the bottom of the dish.
5. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until most of the water has evaporated and the peppers are starting to brown. Serve with tzatziki sauce.

Source: Spiced Pantry

Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post. I was just excited to try it out and was provided a complementary box. As such, all thoughts and opinions remain my own.