The flavours of muhammara – a Middle Eastern roasted red pepper and walnut dip – are front and centre in food blogger and air fryer expert Poppy O’Toole’s stuffed pepper recipe. “A beautiful main dish when you’re fancying a meat-free day, doing Veganuary (use vegan butter) or if you have a veggie friend coming round for dinner,” is how she describes them in her book Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Air Fryer Cookbook. “Tasty with a bit of spice and you don’t miss any meat!”

Experiment with fillings:

Good additions are crumbled feta, labneh, garlic, other soft herbs (like cilantro, chervil, chives and dill) or lemon-yogurt dressing (add 1 crushed garlic clove and lemon juice to yogurt to taste).

Air Fryer Stuffed Peppers

Poppy O'Toole's air fryer recipe for tuffed peppers with a muhammara-inspired vegetarian filling.

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Course Main Course

Servings 4

Ingredients

3 tbsp olive oil
knob of butter
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 onion finely chopped
1 cup (200 g) basmati rice rinsed until the water runs clear
½-1 tsp ground allspice to taste
1-2 tsp Aleppo pepper to taste, plus extra to sprinkle
2 tomatoes deseeded and finely chopped, or 1 tbsp tomato purée/paste
⅔ cup (30 g) flat-leaf parsley leaves and stems roughly chopped
4 romano peppers if you can’t find romano peppers, use regular red peppers instead
⅓ cup (40 g) walnuts toasted and roughly chopped
sea-salt flakes and ground black pepper

Instructions

Warm 2 tbsp of the olive oil and the knob of butter in a medium saucepan. Add the cumin seeds and cook for 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add the onion and cook on a medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, until translucent and lightly golden.
While the onion is cooking, tip the rice into a saucepan of salted water, bring to the boil and cook for 4 minutes, then drain and refresh in cold water.
Once the onions are cooked, remove the pan from the heat. Add the par-boiled rice, along with the allspice, Aleppo pepper, chopped tomato or tomato purée and half the parsley, and season generously.
Heat the air fryer to 350°F (180°C).
Make a slit down the length of a pepper, starting at the top and stopping about ¾-inch (2 cm) from the bottom, so that you have a pouch. Carefully remove the seeds and pith and rub with a little of the remaining olive oil. Fill the pocket with one quarter of the rice mixture and gently push the edges together. Repeat with the remaining peppers and rice mixture.
Get the peppers into the air-fryer basket, making sure there is space between each, and cook for 20 to 30 minutes, until beginning to char.
Sprinkle the peppers with the toasted walnuts, the remaining parsley and a big sprinkling of Aleppo pepper. Serve individually or on a big serving platter.