Vegging out: Stuffed veggies

It's definitely been a veggie week with all the lovely fresh produce around at this time of year. While roasted veggies are great for quick lunches and dinners, you can also get creative with stuffing them. The round courgettes particularly make a very attractive picture on the plate. We like to use bolognese sauce as an option -- and the vegetables instead of pasta make it a healthier choice, but just as tasty. If you are looking for a vegetarian option, consider making some savoury rice for the stuffing. And a little grated cheese on top is always a nice finishing touch.

Serves: 3-4 as a main course, with or without protein/bread. Increase by one (large) vegetable of your choice for each additional person or so you have some leftovers for another meal; refrigerate any leftovers for up to 3 days

Time to prepare/cook: Approximately 30 minutes

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Ingredients

• 1 large aubergine (eggplant for those in the US!)

• 1 large courgette (zucchini) -- use a round one if you can find it as it's easier to stuff

• 1 large red or yellow pepper

• 2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (I sometimes use flavoured oils like basil oil for extra taste)

• For the filling: Use my bolognese recipe here -- or savoury rice

• Optional: Some fresh, crusty bread on the side to mop up fillings

• Optional: Grated cheese (cheddar, comté or similar) to top the veggies at the end

Method

• Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C

• Rinse the vegetables in cold water

• Slice the ends off the aubergine and cut in half lengthways, then use a spoon to scoop out the insides leaving around 1/2 cm of flesh all over -- essentially making a boat for the filling; set the scooped out pieces aside for use later

• Slice the top off the pepper and take out the seeds and white flesh; save the top to use as a lid

• Slice the top off the round courgette and scoop out the flesh as for the aubergine, leaving around 1/2 cm of flesh inside; save the lid and the scooped out flesh. If you have a long courgette, make boats as for the aubergine

• Lightly oil a baking tray and set the prepared vegetables on this, ensuring the sides of each also have a very light coating of oil and put the lids on the pepper and round courgette

• Place in the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes until the vegetables are fairly but not completely tender, then remove from the oven

• While the vegetables are cooking, make the stuffing -- see bolognese here or use some savoury rice as a vegetarian option

• Stuff the pre-cooked vegetables -- carefully, they will be hot! -- replace lids as needed and return to the oven for a further 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are tender (a sharp knife easily goes through them)

• If you want to add cheese as a topping do this 5-10 minutes after returning the stuffed veggies to the oven

• Serve and enjoy!

And here's on we did with just stuffed peppers as a starter (we had a lot of peppers!). We used a chili stuffing for this one, with red kidney beans -- you can find the recipe here. So again, be creative with your choice of stuffing!