Cherry Mango Salsa Stuffed Mini Peppers

I love these little peppers soooooo much.

They’re just so cute.

They’re also sweet and crunchy and make a great tiny vessel for delivering one-bite cocktail-time deliciousness.

If you’ve seen my Pineapple Basil Shrimp Boats or my Bacon Wrapped Tropical Nuts, you know I thrill at the challenge of thinking outside the bread.

I have absolutely nothing against bread but I like it better with dinner than before. Tear me off a nice hunk of rustic sourdough to go with my stew or some whole wheat baguette to mop up my steak juices and I’ll love you forever. But too many bread based starters and I’m full before the main course even hits the table. And that makes me sad.

Perhaps this means I have a control issue when it comes to bread? Whatever. I’m certainly not alone.

So, in the interests of staying hungry and happy until mealtime, I halved and seeded a bunch of these peppers, made a cherry mango salsa to put inside

and topped it with some feta cheese.

Bright, fresh and a little different. Plus, there’s no plate necessary so you’ve always got a hand free for that gin and tonic 😉

Notes: If time allows, refrigerate your salsa for an hour before filling your peppers. It really allows the flavors to come together. When halving the peppers, I kept the stems on which took a little doing but I love the way they look. For filling the pepper, I found a grapefruit spoon was best in that it gave me more control. I doubt you could overdo it on the feta. If you don’t like peppers you’re probably not reading this post BUTJUSTINCASE I’ll mention this would also be delicious atop a juicy slice of cucumber.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup cubed mango (I used frozen.)
• 1/2 cup pitted and halved cherries (I used fresh but frozen works, too.)
• 2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro, roughly chopped.
• 1 Tablespoons fresh mint, bruised and chopped.
• 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice.
• 4 Tablespoons red onion, finely diced.
• 1/2 tsp Aleppo pepper. (If you’re not familiar with Aleppo pepper, Serious Eats has a great description of it.)
• 1/4 tsp salt.
• Twelve sweet mini peppers, halved and seeded.
• Feta cheese for topping.

DIRECTIONS

• Place first eight ingredients (everything through the salt) in the bowl of your food processor and pulse until fully combined.
• If time allows, refrigerate for one hour.
• Fill your peppers with your salsa.
• Top with feta.

You’ll have extra salsa which can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It’ll keep nicely for 4 to 6 days. Try enjoying your leftovers with corn chips, fish or pork.

This salsa recipe is inspired by one I saw on Sweet Remedy.