Stuffed Capsicum Tawa Fry Recipe – Colorful ball peppers stuffed with potato and shallow fried on a tawa (flat skillet). Capsicum or bell peppers, is one of the versatile vegetable. Its used in many curries, stir-fry or roasts, along with many other things, e.g. Prawn Capsicum curry, Pav Bhaji.
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What is stuffed capsicum
When you empty the seeds of capsicum and stuff it with something. This is called stuffed capsicum. You stuff the bell peppers with boiled and spiced potato. You can use other stuffings like Paneer too. In Greece you will find Gemista. Gemista is bell peppers stuffed with rice.
What is tawa fry
Tawa or Tava, is a flat skillet. It is mostly used to make flat breads or pancakes or omelette. Tawa fry – process of cooking using tawa to shallow fry. First heat up the tawa to low heat and spray a little amount of oil. Then shallow fry the contents. In this, case stuffed capsicum.
My mum normally makes stuffed capsicum. She will take the seeds out and stuff with potato. She won’t do tawa fry. Her recipe will simply include cooking the bell peppers with stuffing in a pan. Those full bell peppers stuffed are delicious too.
I find this tawa fry version more appealing to eyes, and retaining the same great taste.
Benefits of capsicum
- Capsicum is an excellent source of vitamin C and A. Red variant contains more vitamin – c compared to green.
- Capsicum is a good source of vitamin E, B6, dietary fibre, and folate.
Method
The recipe has two parts, getting the stuffing ready. Then stuffing the hollow bell peppers and shallow frying on tawa.
- First of all, take the centre crown/stem part of bell pepper and remove all the seeds from inside. Pepper should be hollow and empty from inside.
- Wash bell peppers and keep aside for drying.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a pan over low heat. Once warm, add cumin seeds. When the cumin seeds crackle, add salt, chilli powder, turmeric powder and coriander powder and sauté.
- Add mashed potatoes in this and mix them well with the help of 2-3 tablespoon water. Switch off the heat and let it cool. Stuffing is ready.
- Once the stuffing is cool enough, start stuffing it in the peppers. Do it gently otherwise peppers can break.
- Heat a non stick tava on low heat and pour 1 tablespoon oil on it. Now, Slice the stuffed peppers and place these slices in the heated pan / tava.
- Shallow fry them in both side till the pepper ring is little soft.
Pro tips for making stuffed capsicum tawa fry
- Be careful when taking the seeds off the capsicum. Do not break the capsicum. Take off the crown of capsicum and then gradually de-seed the capsicum.
- You can prepare the stuffing ahead of the time. If you using stuffing kept in refrigerator, make sure to heat it up room temperature, else it will take longer to shallow fry.
- Check that the potatoes are firmly mashed with no lumps. Lumpy stuffing has the risk of coming out of capsicum when frying.
- Make sure you stuff the capsicum to the bottom firmly. If not fully stuffed, during cutting or shallow frying the stuffing come out loose from capsicum.
- Greece the pan with pat of oil and shallow fry on low heat.
- Exercise care when tossing the capsicum rings to fry from other side. Add little oil on the edges and use a flat spatula to gently lift the capsicum and then turn around.
- Do not overcook, else capsicum won’t be crunchy and will become soggy. Soggy capsicum will make stuffings come out.
- Use colourful bell peppers if you can. Colourful capsicums look good. Good looking food always appeals.
This stuffed capsicum is
- Vegan
- Gluten-free
- Acts as great side dish
- Quick to make
- Easy to cook
- Delicious and let’s you choose stuffing as per your own taste (Use Paneer or Tofu, or Keema as alternative)
Serving suggestion
Serve these stuffed capsicums as side dish along with chapatti, dal and rice. You can also serve these as starters with green chutney.
Recipe Card
Stuffed Capsicum Tawa Fry
Equipment
- Tawa
Ingredients
- 4 Capsicum
- 3 Boiled Potatoes Mash the potatoes throughly
- 1 Onion Small size, finely chopped
- 1 tsp Coriander Powder
- 1/3 tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1/3 tsp Red Chilli Powder
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1/3 tsp Cumin Seeds
- 3 Tbsp Oil
Instructions
- First of all, take the centre crown/stem part of bell pepper and remove all the seeds from inside. Pepper should be hollow and empty from inside.
- Wash them and keep aside for drying.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a pan over low heat. Once warm, add cumin seeds. When the cumin seeds crackle, add salt, chilli powder, turmeric powder and coriander powder and sauté.
- Add mashed potatoes in this and mix them well with the help of 2-3 tablespoon water. Switch off the heat and let it cool. Our stuffing is ready.
- Once the stuffing is cool enough, start stuffing it in the peppers. Do it gently otherwise peppers can break.
- Heat a non stick pan / tava on low heat and pour 1 tablespoon oil on it. Now, Slice the stuffed peppers and place these slices in the heated pan / tava.
- Shallow fry them in both side till the pepper ring is little soft.
- Take them out on a plate and serve hot with Dal, rice and parantha.
Notes
- Don’t overcook the capsicum discs as that will end up in pepper shrinking and stuffing coming out.
- Stuff the peppers slowly and gently so that they are filled to bottom.
This looks so good. Liking the idea.