Sweet potato and paneer stuffed peppers

 



One vegetable I love to use is sweet peppers.It tastes great paired with almost anything from rice based dishes like biryani or pulao to soups, dal or other vegetables. It makes for a great salad, served with a creamy dip or  stuffed like this  recipe with cheese. Here I have filled these with sweet potatoes and paneer and then cooked them till they got slightly charred. I also made a gravy to go along with it, but these were good even without the gravy.

Ingredients

 For stuffed peppers

12-14 mini sweet peppers
2 sweet potatoes
200 grams grated paneer
1 small red onion finely chopped
1 tbsp ginger and green chilies (finely chopped)
1 tsp clove powder
1 tbsp chaat masala
2 tsp. black salt
1 tsp. cumin seeds
1 tsp. red chili powder
1 tsp. turmeric powder
a bunch of chopped cilantro

For gravy

1/2 cup roasted peanuts

1/4 cup sesame seeds

1/2 cup grated green mango

1 large red onion chopped

3 fat garlic cloves

4 cloves ground

2 dry red chilies

2-3 slit green chilies

1 tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp garam masala

1 tbsp brown sugar or jaggery powder

1 tsp red chili powder

5-6 curry leaves

3 tbsp coriander cumin powder

Oil as required

Method

(Stuffing for the peppers)

Heat oil in a pan, add cumin. Once it splutters drop the onion, ginger and green chilies. Saute for a minute and add the turmeric and clove powder. Now add the grated paneer and transfer the contents in a bowl. Mash the sweet potatoes and add them to the paneer mixture. Now mix in the dry spices (chaat masala, black salt, red chili powder). Add regular salt if needed and fold in the cilantro leaves. Mash everything well.
Wash and pat dry the sweet peppers. Make a slit in the peppers and stuff it with the paneer and sweet pepper mix.  Now take around 2 teaspoons of oil in a non stick pan and place all the peppers, cover and cook for 5-7 minutes. It should get slightly charred. Turn over carefully  and let it cook for another 10 minutes. The peppers can also be baked in the oven.

Preparing the gravy

Heat a non stick or a cast iron pan and dry roast the chopped onion, garlic, dry red chilies, slit green chilies and sesame seeds. (Sesame seeds can be roasted separately too as they tend to roast faster).
Take all the roasted ingredients along with the peanuts and grind them. Heat a little oil in a pot and transfer this mixture in it. Add around 1/2 cup water along with the dry spices (red chili, garam masala, coriander cumin powder, clove powder and salt). Keep stirring regularly and cook on medium heat till the raw smell of spices goes away (5-10 minutes). Pour more water to get a desired consistency. Add the jaggery or brown sugar and curry leaves.  While it is simmering, grate the mango and mix that in the gravy. Turn off the heat and blend the mixture one more time with a hand blender, just to incorporate the mango and blend all the flavors together.
The gravy is ready. Serve by placing the peppers in this gravy. Garnish with cilantro.