These make a great vegetable main course, but if you leave the parmesan off the top, they’ll suit vegans too.
Ingredients
—175g (1 cup) freekeh
2½ cups water
8 large tomatoes
1 Tbps lemon-infused extra virgin olive oil
Finely grated zest 1 lemon
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
1 tsp crushed coriander seeds
2 Tbsp chopped basil
2 Tbsp grated grano padano or parmesan
1 Tbsp panko crumbs (whiz them finer in a spice blender if you can)
Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
Method
—1 Put the freekeh in a sieve and rinse under running water. Transfer to a small saucepan with the measured water, bring up to a bubble and cook gently for 20 minutes (without a lid). Drain, rinse well with warm water, then drain for a further 5 minutes. If freekeh seems particularly wet, bundle it up in a clean cloth and press gently to extract water. Preheat oven to 200°C.
2 Cut the tops off the tomatoes, carefully scoop out seeds and flesh and season inside peppers with salt, turn them upside down to drain for 5 minutes.
3 Mix lemon oil, zest and juice in a bowl with salt, garlic, coriander seeds and basil. Add the freekeh and toss together and pile into the tomatoes. Put the caps on the tomatoes then transfer them to a shallow ovenproof dish lined with baking paper. Sprinkle with parmesan and panko crumbs and drizzle with a little oil.
4 Bake for about 30 minutes, until tomatoes are coloured on top and a little crusty.
Recipe Notes
The panko crumbs will stick to the top of the tomatoes if they are whizzed finer in a spice grinder – or smash with the end of a rolling pin.
Serve the tomatoes with labna, cucumber wedges and a green salad.
Read more about freekeh here, and also check out Stuffed Peppers with Freekeh
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