Slow cooking makes the sweet peppers deliciously tender.

What is it that makes us culinary types –or even just eating types– so fascinated with stuffing things inside of other things? From our turkeys to our donuts, we love the idea of food with a filling. In the fifties, it was cottage cheese spilling out of a tomato half at the diner. Today, it’s Paula Deen seeing how many creatures she can stuff inside of other creature’s cavities and calling it Turducken.

Ms. Deen has actually done nothing new. The stuffing of birds into other birds is a musty old tradition that reached comical proportions two hundred years ago as the extravagant rich tried to outdo one another. At one royal feast in France in the early 1800s, the guests enjoyed a combined total of 17 birds, stuffed inside one another and packed as tight as a clown car.

The Roti sans Pareil (Roast without Equal) consisted of a large bustard, into which were stuffed a turkey, a goose, a pheasant, a chicken, a duck, a guinea fowl, a teal, a woodcock, a plover, a lapwing, a quail, a thrush, a lark, a bunting, then a warbler. The tiny final songbird was stuffed with a single olive.

I suppose Paula Deen would call it a busturgoophenduckfowl-teacockploverwingquail-thrushlarkbuntingler (which is mighty fun to sound out slowly, especially the “cockplover” and “bun-tingler” parts.) Seeing as how a large number of these unlucky birds are on the endangered list, it would be best not to try and replicate it.

Instead, how about stuffing something a little more sane, like sweet peppers? The taste of the colorful peppers is less bitter and more sweet than green peppers, and in the slow cooker they become deliciously fork-tender. The couscous stuffing is a melange of subtle seasonings and crunchy nuts.

Serve as a vegetarian main course, or as an unexpected side with garlic roast chicken.

Couscous-stuffed peppers on the side with garlic-encrusted chicken.

Slow Cooker Stuffed Sweet Peppers Recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups uncooked couscous
2 cups vegetable broth
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1/4 cup cashews
1/4 cup golden raisins or currants
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 red, yellow and/or orange bell peppers

Directions:

Combine all ingredients except peppers in a large bowl and stir to combine. Parboil peppers for about 3 minutes to soften and let cool. Remove stems from peppers. Slice in half vertically and remove seeds and pith. Pare down edges of peppers if necessary to make them even, and save parings for garnish. Fill peppers with couscous mixture, packing it down with the back of a spoon to hold more couscous.

Fill crock of your slow cooker with 3/4 cup hot water, then arrange peppers in the bottom. Cover and cook 2-3 hours on high or 4-6 hours on low, until peppers are tender. Lift carefully with a large slotted spoon and serve.

Tips: You can skip the parboiling if you’d like to save a step before slow cooking, but softening the peppers first makes them easier to fill, as well as making them easier to arrange in the crockpot (the pliability helps them conform to any configuration).

This recipe will likely leave you with some extra couscous mixture, which is a good thing. You can serve it by itself to those who don’t like peppers, or save it for tomorrow’s leftovers. It’s pleasing on its own.

Next time you get the urge to stuff something, make it a pepper. Besides, where would you buy a bustard anyway?