Stuffed Tomatoes

(45 minutes to prepare, serves 6-8)

10 large tomatoes

2 ½ cups cooked millet

1 red onion, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves – finely diced

2 zucchini, finely diced

1 tablespoon fresh oregano (all herbs to be finely diced)

1 tablespoons dry mint

3 tablespoons fresh parsley

1 tablespoon tomato puree

1/2 cup olive oil

Salt and pepper

¼ cup of water

Heat the oven to 400º. Use a small amount of the olive oil to grease a 9 x 13 baking pan. Carefully slice the tops off the tomatoes and remove the middle flesh part – use a spoon. Finely dice the tomato flesh and keep in a separate bowl, add half of the oil, onion, garlic, zucchini, herbs, puree, millet, salt, pepper. Place the tomatoes in the baking pan. Fill the tomatoes to the top with the millet mixture. Pour the rest of the oil into the pan. Bake for about 20 – 30 minutes.

Millet gives a buttery taste to this old family recipe, of course you can make this the traditional way – raw rice, add some olive oil and water to the pan and bake at a reduced temperature for a couple or hours. But why the added work? Unless, of course you want to add heat to a cold kitchen. But for Christmas day – so many other dishes need oven time – stuffed tomatoes are always an elegant edition to a meal, and can be covered with aluminum to keep warm for quite a bit of time. They not only look good they are yummy too.

How about making them part of your Christmas feast!

#tomato