Cheesy way of using up leftover rice

I've just found a cheesy way of using up my leftover fried rice, and pleasantly pleased with the result. Now I do not have to always cook Chinese fried rice to use up my leftover grains.

I found this recipe "Peppers with Rice, Feta and Pine Nut Stuffing" in my The World Encyclopedia of Cheese, which I'm going to add to my list of frequently used cookbook. Long neglected, it actually consists of a treasure trove of useful, easy to cook recipes.

I had quite liberally adjusted the recipe to my needs, which worked very well. Other than capsicums (bell peppers), it is possible to use tomatoes, portobello mushrooms or zucchini to stuff the rice in. And for those without an oven, you could possibly forgo the baking stage. The rice tasted good even before baking.

Peppers stuffed with Rice, Feta and Pine Nuts
Serves two

2-3 large bell peppers (mixture of colours would be good)
half to one cup leftover rice (or whatever you have)
1 carrot, grated
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tomato, chopped
2 large button mushrooms, chopped
sprinkle of pine nuts
sprinkle of raisins
feta cheese, crumbled (quantity depending on how cheesy you want your rice to be)
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
sprinkle of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
salt and ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Cut the peppers in half lengthways and remove the cores and seeds. Bring a large saucepan of water to boil. Add the peppers and boil for 5 minutes. Remove and leave to drain upside down. If you're unsure of how many peppers you need to hold your rice stuffing (like me), you could hang on and blanch whatever number of peppers you need only after frying the rice.

Heat olive oil and sauté the onions and garlic until onions are softened. Stir in the mushrooms, carrot and tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook for about 5 minutes, then mix in the rice, feta, pine nuts, raisins and parsley.

Spoon the mixture into the blanched peppers, sprinkle over the Parmesan and bake for 20 minutes.

If using tomatoes to stuff the rice, spoon out the flesh of tomatoes. Keep the flesh for frying with the carrots and rice.