Herbed Goat Cheese Stuffed Pickled Peppers
These cheese-stuffed pickled sweet peppers made a delightful one or two-bite snack. Set out a tray of these, and your guests will love you forever. You can absolutely enjoy these either stuffed with goat cheese or as plain wee pickled sweet peppers.The recipe makes enough filling for 12 small peppers, but you can scale it up accordingly.The amounts are written in grams, because even though these aren't meant for canning, it does pay to be precise when working with foods that will be preserved, even if only for 2-3 weeks.
Servings 12 peppers or 6 servings of 2 peppers each
Calories 173kcal
Ingredients
For the Brine
- 30 grams about 1 oz kosher salt
- 300 grams 1 1/4 cups water
For the Pickling Liquid
- 187 grams 3/4 cup vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)
- 150 grams granulated sugar
- 125 grams 1/2 cup water
- 1 small sweet onion , chopped
- ½ teaspoon whole peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon dried Herbes de Provence
- 4 whole thyme sprigs
- 1/4-1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes , to taste (optional)
For the Herbed Goat Cheese
- 4 oz mild chevre
- pinch of kosher salt and several grindings of fresh black pepper.
- ½ teaspoon Herbes de Provence.
- minced pickled peppers , about 1/3 cup or so (See Instructions)
Instructions
To Brine
- Combine the water and salt and stir a few times. Set aside.
- Wash your peppers and cut off their stem end and slice off the merest bit of the blossom end. Carefully pull out the seeds and any white membranes.
- Stir the brining liquid again until all the salt has dissolved.
- Submerge the peppers completely in the brine. Use a small dish or a pickling weight/s to keep them submerged.
- Cover and let them sit at room temperature for 8-10 hours or overnight.
To Pickle
- Remove the peppers from the brine. Rinse and drain. Set aside convenient to the stove.
- Combine all the pickling ingredients except the pepper flakes in a medium saucepan. Bring to a hard boil and add the peppers and pepper flakes.
- Cook for 1-2 minutes only.
- Carefully put the peppers in a clean glass container and then pour the pickling liquid over the top. You may need to weigh the peppers down with a small plate or pickling weight/s. You want all the peppers completely submerged in the liquid.
- Let cool and refrigerate for at least 48 hours or up to a week.
- When time to stuff, cut off any longer peppers so that all of the peppers are no more than 1 1/2" long. Reserve the "pickled scraps" for the filling. If all of your peppers are shorter and rounder, you won't need to trim them. In that case, mince up 3-4 extra pickled peppers to use in the filling.
For the Herbed Goat Cheese
- Mince up the reserved "pickled scraps."
- Mix all the filling ingredients together until well combined.
- Stuff each pepper with some of the goat cheese mixture. You should have just enough to completely fill your 12 peppers as long as you trimmed them all. I filled mine with a spoon, but you can also pipe the filling. Just make sure your tip has a wide enough opening that your minced peppers don't get stuck.
- Store in the fridge, covered, but let them come to room temperature before serving so the filling is soft and creamy.
Notes
Feel free to add minced fresh herbs to your goat cheese stuffing if you'd like.
Expect to have about 3/4 cup of filling, enough to fill a small pickled pepper with about a tablespoon of goat cheese filling.
Scale up both the pickling liquid and the filling to make as many stuffed peppers as you'd like.
Nutrition
Serving: 2peppers | Calories: 173kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 9mg | Sodium: 3012mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 28g