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?

Savory slow cooker white bean soup.

“What should I make in the slow cooker?” I asked the fiance.

“Soup.”

He didn’t even look up or hesitate. And he was right. I’ve teased soup out of the old Rival crockpot dozens and dozens of times, from chunky seafood chowders to creamy pumpkin purees, but I haven’t done it in a good, long time.

I realized that I’ve become so enamored of all the unusual and surprising things that can be done with a slow cooker, that I lost my grip on the things it does best. There are two: soup and dried beans. It was high time I did both for Crock Tease, and all in one recipe, to show off the crockpot at its best.

Following on the heels of the previous night’s party , soup sounded like a wonderful hangover cure as well. Steamy broth beats hair of the dog hands down, no matter what anyone tells you. It even slightly beats Water Joe, the brilliant caffeinated water product I once proclaimed the world’s greatest hangover drink. (You know how you can’t decide which you need more, water or coffee, so you alternately guzzle both? Water Joe is both. It has sadly disappeared from the store where I once bought it.)

There are a lot of slow cooker bean recipes that involve opening cans, and that’s okay. Sometimes convenience rules. Do yourself a favor and cook the real deal once in a while, though. The slow cooker does the tough work, it’s cheaper, lower in sodium, and –most importantly– slow cooked beans taste ten times better. Making the soup right in the pot in which the dried beans cook takes advantage of the flavorsome juice that lingers in the crock (known as “bean liquor”).

Top each bowl with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, shaved Parmesan and cracked pepper and the soup will look fine Italian restaurant-quality. Eat as a meal, or serve as a sophisticated starter to an Italian dinner.

Slow Cooker Italian Herb White Bean Soup Recipe

1 lb. dried white beans (Great Northern or Cannellini)
6 cups vegetable broth (about 3 cans)
2 cups water
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 green onions, chopped
3/4 cup roasted red peppers, sliced
1 Tbsp fresh thyme (1 tsp dried)
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary (1 tsp dried)
Juice of 1/2 lemon (about 1 Tbsp)
Salt and coarse ground black pepper to taste

For topping: Coarse ground black pepper, olive oil, shaved Parmesan

Directions: Combine ingredients in crock of your slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours or high for 3½-4 hours. To serve, drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil over each bowl, then top with shaved Parmesan and black pepper to taste.

Tips: Depending on how hot your slow cooker gets (or how many times you sneak a peak and lose moisture), you might need extra liquid to make your soup soupy. Just add extra broth or water as needed –and stop peeking!

Best hangover cure ever. Have you heard? Bean soup is the new Water Joe.