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Mini Peppers Stuffed with Cream Cheese (No Cooking)

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Prep Time: 10 minutes
Servings: 16 mini pepper halves

Ingredients

  • 8 mini peppers 8 oz/225 grams
  • 4 oz cream cheese
  • 4 oz soft goat cheese plain, see notes for substitutions
  • zest from one lemon
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp fresh dill when finely minced plus more dill for decorating the tops
  • 1 tbsp fresh chives when finely minced
  • 3 tbsp pistachios chopped (salted and roasted, measured before chopping)
  • a pinch of salt to taste
  • a pinch of freshly-ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Wash and pat dry the mini peppers. Cut them in half. Leaving the stem on, remove the seeds. Tip: I find it easiest to do this with a pairing knife and clean up any remaining seeds with a little teaspoon. But you can also clean them with just a teaspoon.
  • Mince the dill and chives using a knife. Combine the minced fresh dill, chives, and lemon zest with the cream cheese and goat cheese and mix together. Taste and add a pinch of salt and pepper (if needed, to taste).
  • Fill the mini peppers with the mixture.
  • Chop the pistachios and top the mini peppers with the chopped pistachios. I use a chef’s knife to chop the pistachios and like to chop some finely for a fine pistachio crumb but also leave some bigger pieces for a stronger taste and crunch of the pistachios.
  • Decorate with the dill to make them look like carrots (great for Easter).

Notes

  1. Mini Peppers: If making them for Easter, you can choose just orange mini peppers to make them look like carrots. Otherwise, you could go for the multi-color ones (orange, red, yellow).
  2. Goat Cheese: Pick a soft (and mild) goat cheese without rind that can be easily mixed with the cream cheese. If you don’t like goat cheese, you can substitue the goat cheese with creamy feta or labneh. You can also use just cream cheese (while it will lack the tang of the goat cheese, the recipe will still be delicious).
  3. Cream Cheese: I recommend the full-fat cream cheese as it’s creamier and has a better flavor.
  4. Pistachios: You can substitute pistachios with other nuts you have on hand. Use roasted and salted nuts for extra flavor. Good choices include almonds, pine nuts, walnuts, and pecans.
  5. Fresh Herbs (Dill & Chives): I highly recommend fresh dill and fresh chives for this recipe. In a pinch, you could use dried dill & dried chives but remember to use less when using dried herbs (1 tsp dried dill and 1 tsp dried chives).
  6. Variations: I’ve provided 2 other recipe variations below.
  7. Option 2: Mini Peppers Stuffed with Cream Cheese and Sun-Dried Tomatoes. This is another Mediterranean-inspired option. For this variation, you need 8 mini peppers, 4 oz cream cheese, 3 oz soft goat cheese (or substitute with more cream cheese), 4 sun-dried tomatoes (chopped), zest from one lemon, fresh basil (chifonade) (about 2 tbsp when measured after slicing), and pistachios (chopped). Mix the cream cheese with the gost cheese, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, lemon zest, and fresh basil chifonade/finely-sliced basil. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Fill the pepper halves with the mixture and top with chopped pistachios.
    Option 3: Mini Peppers Stuffed with Cream Cheese and Bacon (or Pancetta) Bits
     
    For this variation, use 8 mini peppers, 8 oz of cream cheese, and crispy cooked bacon. Add 2 tbsp of chopped (cooked) crispy bacon to the cream cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Fill the cleaned pepper halves with the bacon cream cheese mixture. Top with more crispy bacon bits. To put a Mediterranean spin on it, use pancetta instead of bacon and use half cream cheese and half goat cheese in the mixture.