Pimientos Rellenos - SPAIN

When I was volunteering in Cataluna in Spain, long before I was vegan or even vegetarian, I used to love Pimientos rellenos (Stuffed peppers), my host would leave them in the freezer for me and I would heat them up for lunch and eat them in the sunshine before my siesta (Not a bad life eh?). My favourite filling was cod in a béchamel sauce so I decided to recreate a sort of creamy fish sauce.. sin la pescada.

PIMIENTOS RELLENOS - SPAIN

Ingredients:

2 tbs olive oil

1 can butter beans, drained and rinsed (keep a tbs of the bean liquid)

1 jar of whole pimientos peppers

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbs red wine vinegar

1tsp thyme, dried or fresh

salt and pepper

Instructions:

Heat oven to 180 degrees. Drain the liquid from the pimentos, pat dry with a paper towel.

In a sauce pan, heat the oil, add the garlic and butter beans, cook for a few minutes then mash with a fork until it's a smooth paste, add the red wine vinegar, the bean liquid, thyme, salt and pepper and cook for a further minute.

When the mixture has cooled, stuff the peppers, place in a tray and cook for 10-15 minutes.

Special thanks to Melanie Vautier for being my new food photographer. No more badly lit midnight photos, I promise!