Pepper & Feta parcels

I made those filled peppers for a BBQ we had yesterday. This was the first time I tried something different from a fresh salad to accompany the meat and I have to say that although the prepping to a bit longer than the usual tomato-cucumber-lettuce salad the result was really worth the extra effort. Although I know BBQs tend to always be about meat (and lots of it) I think it is equally important to offer something nice to go with all the meat that tastes nice both with meat and without it (this is really important if you have vegetarian friends).

After flicking through all the recipes I have under side dishes I came down to either this one or a more simple feta and tomato parcels. I know this will sound a bit too simplistic but I picked this one because it looked a lot more colourful than the other one - and they say that it is important to keep you vegetables colourful in order to get all the necessary vitamins. And to be fair, something nice and colourful looks really nice next to some BBQ meat.

All in all, these take around 15 minutes to prepare, but they are so worth the effort. I received compliments for those parcels from both my vegetarian friend as well as the meat eaters, so they must be good. So next time when you have a BBQ (or for the very first BBQ of the season which I know are coming up as soon as the snow melts and temperature becomes bearable) instead of serving a fresh green salad surprise your guests with those delicious vitamin filled parcels - trust me, they'll be a big hit with all the guests and you might even have to share the recipe afterwards :)

Ingredients
(Serves 8 - approximately 142 cal per serving)
- 1/2 red onion
- 4 baby courgettes, halved and sliced
- 16 cherry tomatoes, halved
- 16 black olives
- 2 tbsp shredded basil
- Olive oil
- 4 red peppers, halved and seeds removed
- Salt
- Pepper

Directions
In a bowl, mix the chopped onion, courgette, tomatoes and olives. Crumble over the feta and add the basil. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Divide the filling up between pepper halves. Cook them on a barbecue or in a hot oven until the vegetables are tender.

Recipe from BBC Goodfood