Millet-Stuffed Bell Peppers with Watercress & Orange

“Millet-Stuffed Bell Peppers with Watercress & Orange” (page 336) puts a novel and delicious spin on the traditional stuffed pepper. Millet isn’t a common grain for most of us living in this country, but the more ways I find to use it, the more I appreciate it. It is versatile, nutritious, and as a bit of a chameleon, can adapt itself to dishes ranging from sweet to savory. In this simple preparation, cooked millet is mixed with sautéed onions, watercress, chopped orange segments; mildly seasoned with pepper and coriander; then stuffed into bell pepper halves. These bake in orange juice until the peppers are tender, and the millet stuffing is heated through. Use any color of peppers that pleases you; I found red peppers on sale at the market the week I made these, so that is what I used. I made a couple of changes to the recipe to suit my own tastes. First, I didn’t pre-cook the pepper halves in boiling water before stuffing and baking them. I find this step softens the peppers more than I like, and the bake in the oven is enough for me. I also spooned the orange juice over the stuffed peppers, rather than pouring it into the bottom of the baking pan so the millet could soak up the delicious flavor. These keep well, so you won’t mind if you end up with leftovers – in fact, you’ll be glad of it!

  

Keeping it “McDougall Friendly” checklist: 

• Substitute the oil for sautéing the veggies with sherry (which added a nice flavor), or water, or soy sauce