Roasted Goat Cheese Peppers (Printable)
Creamy goat cheese stuffed into sweet mini peppers and roasted until golden and tender.
# What You'll Need:
→ Vegetables
01 - 16 mini sweet peppers
→ Filling
02 - 6 ounces fresh goat cheese (chèvre)
03 - 2 tablespoons fresh chives, finely chopped
04 - 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
05 - 1 garlic clove, minced
06 - 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
07 - 1 teaspoon lemon zest
08 - 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
09 - 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
→ Garnish
10 - 1 tablespoon pine nuts, toasted (optional)
11 - Fresh herbs, to serve
# Steps:
01 - Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
02 - Wash the mini peppers thoroughly. Slice each pepper lengthwise and carefully remove the seeds and membranes while keeping the halves intact.
03 - In a mixing bowl, combine the goat cheese, chives, parsley, garlic, olive oil, lemon zest, black pepper, and salt. Stir until smooth and evenly blended.
04 - Generously fill each pepper half with the goat cheese mixture using a spoon or piping bag.
05 - Place the stuffed peppers on the prepared baking sheet in a single layer, spacing them evenly.
06 - Roast in the preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes until the peppers are tender and the cheese is lightly golden on top.
07 - Remove from the oven and let rest briefly. Garnish with toasted pine nuts and fresh herbs if desired. Serve warm or at room temperature.
# Expert Tips:
01 -
- These little peppers disappear faster than anything else on the appetizer table, and guests always assume you spent far longer than twenty minutes making them.
- The creamy tang of goat cheese against the sweet roasted pepper is one of those flavor pairings that feels almost too easy to be this good.
02 -
- Overfilling the peppers causes the cheese to melt right off the sides during roasting, so aim for a generous but contained mound.
- Letting the goat cheese come fully to room temperature before mixing is the single thing that transforms the texture from clumpy to silky.
03 -
- A piping bag or even a zip top bag with the corner snipped off fills the peppers faster and neater than any spoon.
- Toasting the pine nuts in a separate dry skillet before garnishing takes one extra minute but adds a nutty crunch that people always notice.