Stuffed Banana Chillies

This was the first blog-worthy dish I cooked in our new house - A bit lagged on the posting though!

Our stove is annoying, and our oven tiny, but we have a fabulous kitchen with tons of space and a beautiful treed outlook. I have been cooking so much and experimenting with new ingredients and flavours... Its nice to have a kitchen big enough to share cooking :)

A trip to Charlies Fruit Market in Everton Park took me across some red banana chillies which were on clearance - they looked really quite fresh and for $O.85, who could say no?




Stuff 'em, Cook 'em and eat them for the rest of the week - they were delicious cold too!

Stuffed Banana Chillies

1/2 kg Banana Chillies - topped and de-seeded. slit down middle is easiest.
1 cup white calrose rice
250gms fetta cheese
1 small onion, diced finely
dried mint
dried dill
salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil
2 cans of diced tomatoes

Boil rice in enough water to make sticky/gluggy rice. set aside to cool.
Crumble fetta into cooled rice. add herbs and spices and diced onion. mix well.
Stuff chillies with rice mixture, leaving them open at the top with some rice showing.
Pour tomatoes into a baking dish, arrange chillies on top. Drizzle with olive oil.
Bake in a 180 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until chillies are softening and rice is staring to brown.

Green Beans and Tomato with Yoghurt (Fasolakia Fresca)

This is a dish very similar to "Fasolakia lathera" or green bean casserole which is made during fasting times in greece. The base ingredients are the same, but with some very important changes:

Instead of olive oil being the oily ingredient, I like to use butter and a bit of ghee - gives it a much different flavour
I also like to include various spices which aren't usually used in the greek version - these can be curry powder, garam masala, zataar (lebanese wild thyme seasoning) or basil depending on what sort of flavour I am trying to create.
I like to eat it with yoghurt - plain greek yoghurt is best.

Today, I felt like using some zataar - seeing as how I have a kilo of it needing to be used!

Fasolakia Fresca - Green Beans and Tomato with Yoghurt

500gm fresh green beans, topped and halved. Good quality frozen beans can be used.
2 tins of tomatoes
one large onion, diced
chopped garlic to taste (I used about 4 cloves)
1tbs butter
1/2 tbs ghee
1 tomato tin of water
2-3 tbs zataar
Paprika to taste
Chilli to taste
Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste


Sautee the onions and garlic in the butter and ghee. Add green beans and stir for 2 minutes.
Add tinned tomatoes and water.


Stir well and let simmer for 5 minutes. Add the spices and salt to taste. (For different flavours, try using curry powder or lots of chilli!)


Stir well and let simmer for 15 minutes or until beans are starting to soften - you want the beans firm but not too crunchy. If using frozen beans, halve the cooking time.


Serve over fluffy basmati rice with yoghurt on the side. Serves 6!!