Oven-Roasted Bell Peppers with Puy Lentils and Tomato Sauce
‘This is one of my favourite recipes so far.’
Kerry B, Cumbria; Black Labrador Member
Table of Contents
- ✨ Before We Begin…
- The Cook’s Mind
- A Note on Origin
- Ingredient Focus: Puy Lentils
- Ingredient Focus: Capers
- My Favourite Way To Eat
- Multi-Purpose Recipe
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- What Will You Learn Whilst Making This Recipe?
- Handpicked to Go With This One
- Waste Less: How To Use Up Your Ingredient Stash!
- Oven-Roasted Bell Peppers with Puy Lentils and Tomato Sauce Recipe
✨ Before We Begin…
Italy inspires this deliciously moreish recipe for vegan oven-roasted bell peppers. In this recipe, we make a wholesome and tasty stuffing of creamy cooked Arborio rice, Puy lentils, capers, herbs, and walnuts. We fill bell peppers and oven-roast them with a simple, quick, and easy passata sauce.
When the dish is in the oven, the roasted red peppers become more mellow in flavour, their flesh becomes softer, and they are transformed into something entirely different from their raw counterparts. This transformation means that this dish is perfect for a dinner party for everyone: vegan, plant-based, meat-eaters, gluten-free, lactose intolerant.
‘Must be best food offer, of any genre, in Kendal. Hugely accomplished cooking and very much recommended.’
Tony P, Kendal; Food Customer
The Cook’s Mind
The Cook’s Mind will master this dish to understand how to develop a filling to fill a vegetable. You will add various ingredients to the stuffing mix and understand how the flavours build layer upon layer. Additionally, you will learn how to consider the vegetable itself in the cooking process, that it’s not just an empty case and that the vegetable itself will change during cooking. Without the arborio rice, you can use the filling for various dishes, such as a baked potato topping, lasagne, or pasta bakes. With the arborio rice, you can mix it with a cheese sauce and layer it with other veggies like wedges of squash and courgette.
Make-Ahead
You can prepare and stuff the peppers in advance – just hold off on baking until needed. Store in a covered dish in the fridge for up to 2 days. Bring to room temp before baking for even cooking.
Freezer-Friendly
- Freeze baked stuffed peppers individually.
- Reheat in the oven from frozen or defrost overnight.
- Best texture if sauce is included to keep moisture in.
Key Substitution Ideas
- Use any colour pepper – red is sweetest, green is boldest.
A Note on Origin
This dish draws from the warm kitchens of southern Europe, where roasting vegetables slowly brings out their sweetest selves, and earthy lentils are treasured for their hearty, nourishing depth. French Puy lentils – prized for their delicate texture and mineral-rich flavour – meet a rich, sun-baked tomato sauce, in a dish that feels both rustic and quietly elegant. It’s a love letter to the way simple ingredients, handled with care, can sing.
Ingredient Focus: Puy Lentils
Puy lentils – the small, slate-green jewels of France’s Le Puy region – are known for their tender bite and subtle, almost peppery flavour. Unlike softer lentils, they hold their shape when cooked, creating beautiful, delicate textures in salads, stews, and stuffings. Their earthy, mineral notes pair effortlessly with ripe tomatoes, slow-cooked onions, and sweet roasted peppers, bringing depth without heaviness. In this dish, they build the solidity and protein, and make this eat as a proper balanced meal. Puy lentils are steady and soulful.
✨ Tiny pearls of earth and rain.
During my research at Asda, I found other, cheaper lentils, labelled ‘Green Lentils’, that should not be used in this dish. This type of broader, flatter lentil might well ‘blow’ and become very starchy on the palate. Puy lentils will hold their form and bite, which is ideal when stuffing roasted red peppers for a delightful addition to the recipe.
Ingredient Focus: Capers
Capers — tiny, unruly buds plucked before they flower — bring a sharp, bright punctuation to rich and savoury dishes. Pickled or brined, they carry an intense, salty tang, almost as if the sea itself had been distilled into a single bite. Their boldness isn’t about loudness — it’s about contrast, about awakening everything else on the plate.
In slow-cooked sauces, capers act like a secret spark, cutting through sweetness and richness with their wild, briny spirit. They are the small-but-mighty companions that make tomato sauces sing, dressings dance, and simple roasted vegetables feel suddenly vivid. A little handful goes a very long way.
✨ Tiny bursts of wild salt and sunshine.
My Favourite Way To Eat
I love piling these peppers, warm and tumbled, onto a big, shallow bowl – catching the juices with a hunk of good bread, mopping every last sun-kissed trace. Georgia by my side, a breeze coming through the kitchen door, and a glass of something crisp and golden within reach. It’s the kind of simple, radiant eating that feels stitched to the seasons – food that knows how to pause and breathe.
Multi-Purpose Recipe
This recipe has more than one life… A dish that works as a centrepiece or side. Serve hot or cold, whole or sliced into a salad. The lentil–tomato base makes a brilliant pasta sauce, soup foundation, or filling for a wrap with greens and seeds.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This dish feels like slipping into something familiar yet quietly extraordinary – the comfort of roast vegetables and rich tomato, layered with the earthy charm of Puy lentils. It’s hearty without being heavy, vibrant without being fussy, and built from ingredients you can trust. A plateful of sunshine and substance, for long lunches and peaceful suppers alike.
- Deep, sun-warmed flavours – with roasted peppers and rich tomato sauce.
- Beautifully balanced textures – tender lentils, silky sauce, yielding peppers.
- Nourishing and satisfying – light enough for lunch, hearty enough for supper.
What Will You Learn Whilst Making This Recipe?
- How slow-roasting transforms the natural sweetness of peppers.
- How to build a rich, balanced tomato sauce from simple ingredients.
- How to cook Puy lentils so they stay tender and distinct, never mushy.
Handpicked to Go With This One
A few recipes that play well together — flavour friends, not just neighbours.
Waste Less: How To Use Up Your Ingredient Stash!
Got something spare – a handful, a spoonful, or the end of a packet? These tags help you find other ways to use it. It’s a small step toward cooking intuitively and wasting less❣️
apple cider vinegar, arborio rice, balsamic glaze, bay leaf, bell pepper, capers, fresh basil, fresh flat leaf parsley, fresh garlic, fresh herbs, green pepper, harissa, lemon, nutritious yeast, passata, puy lentils, red onion, red pepper, red wine vinegar, stock cube, tomato purée, walnuts, yellow pepper
Oven-Roasted Bell Peppers with Puy Lentils and Tomato Sauce Recipe
Oven-Roasted Bell Peppers with Puy Lentils and Tomato Sauce
Sweet bell peppers are filled with a rich mix of puy lentils, nuts, herbs and Arborio rice. Slowly roasted in a tomato sauce, they become tender and almost spoonable – the filling silky, the flavours gently layered. A beautiful dish for when you want to cook with care.
Photographed truthfully. If you cook it, yours will look like mine.
Ingredients
- 300 ml boiling water | to cook Puy lentils
- 5 g stock cube | use Gluten-Free if required
- 2 units bay leaves
- 100 g puy lentils | dry weight
- 400 ml boiling water | to cook Arborio rice
- 200 g arborio rice
- 5 g stock cube
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 300 g red onions | unpeeled weight
- 1 pinch salt | a good solid pinch
- 3 units garlic cloves
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp harissa
- 30 g capers | chopped
- 30 g walnuts | chopped
- 3 tbsp flat leaf parsley | chopped
- 2 tbsp nutritious yeast
- 4 units bell peppers | red, green or yellow
- 15 ml olive oil
- 200 ml boiling water | to make up the stock cube
- 5 g stock cube
- 400 g passata
- 1 pinch ground black pepper | a good solid pinch
- 1 bunch basil
- 75 g Spinach, Rocket and Watercress salad | to serve
- 15 ml extra virgin olive oil | to serve
- 10 ml balsamic glaze | to serve
- 1 pinch salt | to serve
- 1 unit lemon | unwaxed; to serve; zest on top, wedge on the side
Instructions
- Get all the ingredients listed out onto the work surface. Get all the equipment listed out and check everything is in order. Empty the oven of spare tins, etc. Put your apron on. Roll your sleeves up. Tie your hair back. Ensure the sink is empty of stuff. Put a full kettle of water on to boil. Wash your hands and clean the surfaces with hot soapy water… A couple of minutes preparing yourself is good.
Cook the Puy lentils
- Weigh the Puy lentils into the pan, add the boiling water from the kettle, 5g stock cube and 2 bay leaves, stir to dissolve the stock cube, and simmer with a lid on, on a low heat. The water will be absorbed into the lentils. Cook for around 15 minutes until al dente. No lentil mush please! Once cooked, pop the lentils into a sieve held over the pan to ensure there is no spare water. Put to one side.300 ml boiling water, 5 g stock cube, 2 units bay leaves, 100 g puy lentils
Cook the Arborio rice
- Weigh the rice into the pan, add the boiling water from the kettle and 5g stock cube, stir to dissolve the stock cube, and simmer with a lid on, on a low heat. Keep an eye on it. When the water has gone (10-12 minutes), turn off the heat and put the pan with the cooked rice to one side. It will be, correctly, sticky and starchy. It is done when the water has gone, assuming a low heat and the lid on.400 ml boiling water, 5 g stock cube, 200 g arborio rice
Cook the filling
- Peel and chop the red onion into small dice. You don't want big pieces of onion because the filling won't hold together properly. In a large fry pan warm the oil on a low heat and then add the onions with a large pinch of salt, stir and cook well. Keep moving the onion around as to soften and become translucent.2 tbsp olive oil, 300 g red onions, 1 pinch salt
- When the onions are nearly done, peel and finely slice the garlic cloves and add to the pan. Cook for a couple of minutes to allow the garlic to soften.3 units garlic cloves
- When the garlic is soft, add the tomato purée to the pan, stir around thoroughly and allow it to cook through and darken in colour, 3-4 minutes.2 tbsp tomato purée
- Deglaze the pan: in a small bowl, mix the red wine vinegar and apple cider vinegar together, along with the salt and harissa. Then pour into the pan, mix thoroughly and cook until the liquid has disappeared.2 tbsp red wine vinegar, 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, ½ tsp salt, 1 tsp harissa
- Whilst waiting for the vinegar to reduce, chop the capers, walnuts and parsley.3 tbsp flat leaf parsley, 30 g walnuts, 30 g capers
- Pre-heat the oven 190 ℃ fan. You'll need your casserole out now, along with foil (to cover the peppers; the peppers might sit too tall to use the lid of your casserole).
- When the vinegar has reduced to nothing, add the capers, walnuts and parsley to the pan and mix. Add the nutritious yeast to the pan and mix. Add the cooked Puy lentils to the pan and mix. Add the cooked Arborio rice to the pan and mix.2 tbsp nutritious yeast
Prepare the peppers
- Taking a large chef knife, level the bottom of the peppers. One by one, stand up the peppers and work out where you need to take a little slice off the base. Steady here. Sometimes you can't get a flat surface. It's OK, you'll just need to lie the pepper down to cook.4 units bell peppers, 15 ml olive oil
- With the same knife, take the top off each pepper, leaving approximately 15mm of coloured flesh with the stalk. I lay the pepper on it's side to do this. Retain the tops. Then, use a small paring knife to carefully remove the white flesh and seeds from inside each pepper. Rub the peppers inside and out with the oil. You've just got to get greasy hands!
Prepare the passata/stock mix
- Make up the stock, pour the passata into the casserole, add the stock and black pepper, and stir to mix.400 g passata, 1 pinch ground black pepper, 5 g stock cube, 200 ml boiling water
Stuff the peppers
- Using a large spoon, fill each pepper and stand up on a chopping board. Use a smaller spoon to pack the filling down tight into the pepper. You will have a little filling left over and I'm sure you'll figure out how to eat it up! I wanted you to have a little spare to allow for differing sizes of peppers. The top of the filled pepper should be slightly curved. Add a small amount of passata (1 tsp) to the top of the filled pepper and add 3 little pieces of torn basil. Then put the pepper lids on, and place into the casserole. Fill all the peppers and stand then in the pan with room between them so that hot air can circulate.1 bunch basil
- In a typical bag of fresh basil, there are stalks of basil with leaves on. Take around 5 of those stalks and put them around the base of the peppers, in the passata. Spoon some passata over the herb to protect from drying out. Adding basil to the passata around the base of the peppers is an essential step. The herb is beautifully aromatic.
- Cover the peppers with tin foil to keep the stock water steam inside the casserole. The steam is an essential part of the process of cooking the peppers.
- Place into an oven for an hour. After an hour, you'll start to smell the peppers. Get out the casserole and carefully prod at the flesh of the peppers with your finger: prod the top and the sides. Have a look. You're looking for soft flesh. The peppers should look different. Like they've relaxed. If so, it's time to take the foil off and return to the oven for 20-30 minutes to brown up the tops of the peppers. It's easier at this point because you can see through the oven door!
- How to plate: place a pepper on a plate (I found in testing that eating a pepper from a bowl was not right); place the pepper slightly to one side to allow for the salad leaves. Spoon a little of the passata onto the plate, around the base of the pepper; curve a handful of salad around the pepper, arranging some curvy rocket stalks on top to lift the height of the dish plus a few small basil leaves; drizzle over the olive oil, a few drops of balsamic glaze and a tiny pinch of salt. Add a slender wedge of lemon (rind outwards – to show the lemon colour best). Take a little more lemon and grate a little zest over the whole dish.75 g Spinach, Rocket and Watercress salad, 15 ml extra virgin olive oil, 10 ml balsamic glaze, 1 unit lemon
Nutrition
Calories: 554kcalCarbohydrates: 78gProtein: 17gFat: 20gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 5gMonounsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 0.2mgSodium: 1539mgPotassium: 837mgFiber: 15gSugar: 11gVitamin A: 1052IUVitamin C: 26mgCalcium: 83mgIron: 7mg
Nutritional values are estimates only and will vary depending on specific ingredients used. Nutrition is per serving. Information is for the main recipe, not optional accompaniments.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
COPYRIGHT
© The Golden Polar Bear, 2025. Recipes and photography by Julia Savory. If you share this, please pass it along with kindness and if possible share a link back to this site. #ForTheAnimals
Photographed truthfully. If you cook it, yours will look like mine.
Next Steps?
You’ve got the full recipe — now take it further. Inside Black Labrador, you’ll find structured video courses and an ever-growing cookbook designed to help you cook with understanding, not guesswork. Learn, revisit, and deepen your skills at your own pace.
‘Totally recommend the cookery course. The meals are really tasty and full of flavour (not like most of the vegan mush I make for myself).’
Kerry B, Cumbria
