Green Bell Peppers stuffed with Creamy Orzo

I invited my friend, Nisha, for lunch and wanted to treat her to something fancy. She was my first friend in California. We met through friends and made plans to go shopping and that turned into dinner and never-ending conversations. She has been one of my really good friends since then and I love having her over!

This was a good dish for lunch. Although the white sauce might be a bit heavy for some, the combination of that with the green peppers and veggies made it a light meal.

White Sauce

Ingredients

2 tbsp unsalted butter (you can use salted butter and skip on garlic salt)
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup room temperature milk
1/2 tsp garlic salt or to taste(you can use regular salt if you don’t have garlic salt)

Steps

1. In a heavy bottom sauce pan, melt butter on medium heat.
2. Add all-purpose flour and keep stirring with a whisk for about 2 minutes. You will start noticing a change in color of the flour.
3. Add milk while whisking.
4. Constantly whisk the mixture until it thickens a bit, then turn off the heat.
5. Add garlic salt or regular salt, your favorite herbs and set aside.

Pasta

Ingredients

1 cup Orzo
3 medium green bell peppers
1/2 red bell pepper - chopped
1/2 yellow onion - chopped
1/4 cup green peas
1/4 cup corn
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup shredded white cheddar or gouda
salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper - to taste

Steps

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350º F.
2. Cook orzo as directed on the package. Make sure they're not overcooked.
3. Cut the tops off the green peppers and take the seeds out.
4. In a large pot bring water to boil and add salt.
5. Carefully put the green peppers in boiling water.
6. Blanch them for about 3-4 minutes, remove them from the pot and place them upside down (open side down) on a couple paper towels. Dry them off.
7. In a mixing bowl, mix the cooked orzo, chopped red bell pepper, onions, green peas, corn and white sauce.
8. Add salt, black pepper and crushed red pepper, to taste.
9. Carefully spoon the orzo+veggie mixture to the blanched green bell peppers.
10. In a small mixing bowl mix the shredded cheese and bread crumbs and then add a generous amount to each pepper.
11. Bake for 15-20 minutes.
12. Serve with hot sauce/Sriracha.

Oh and I got to use my new fancy plates! :)