Good stuff!
Stuffed peppers are a regular meat-free option on pub menus and can be as imaginative or as mundane as you like.
So this time around, we gave our beer and food matching panel scope to pick their favourite filling, as long as it was suitable for vegetarians.
John Keeling, Fuller's head brewer:
Of course, it all depends on what the peppers are stuffed with. Cream cheese is very different to a savoury rice! On this basis, I would recommend a good all-rounder like Honey Dew. Peppers have a sweetness of their own, and the beer will complement this, while Honey Dew will cut through creamy flavours and is subtle enough to go with more savoury or spicy options. You could always try another honey beer, such as Waggledance from Wells & Young's.
Phil Vickery, chef and broadcaster:
A light wheat beer would be perfect with stuffed peppers, or Shepherd Neame's Early Bird ale.
John Rudden, chef and director of the White Hart Inn, Lydgate and Craft Guild of Chefs member:
To accompany a dish of stuffed peppers I would recommend a beer called Scorcher, an American pale ale from a local brewery called J.W. Lees. I recommend Scorcher because the light, sweet flavour of the beer really complements and cuts through the bite of the peppers. Scorcher is renowned as a summer ale due to its fruity aroma and taste, and because it has a refreshing hop finish, and it is available in both bottles and draught."
Ben McFarland, beer writer and stuffing enthusiast:
In an increasingly pretentious gastronomic world, a dish of stuffed peppers is one of the last reassuring bastions of culinary common sense.
They're simple to make, they offer a cacophony of textures and can deliver both sweet and spicy flavours - often at the same time. While this is undoubtedly a forte, the versatility of the little blighters can prove a challenge for those looking to pick out a suitable beer.
But, dear reader, therein lies the beauty of beer. Unlike wine, which becomes tongue-tied when faced with awkward food partners, beer happily opens up its arms and embraces complex flavours.
Assuming that the peppers will be a cradle for grilled and sweetened vegetables, not to mention an array of herbs and spices, an all-rounder is called for. Something that will have the carbonation to scrub away the grease from the palate and something that won't take any nonsense from defiant flavours but will, instead, perk them up.
A weissbier is one such multi-tasker and I'd opt for Blanche de Bruges, a Belgian beer less tart and bitter than most yet with a gloriously spicy and citrus hit.
If the peppers are particularly fiery and flavoursome, then try Schneider Weiss Aventinus; a German wheat doppelbock that delivers sweetness, strength, spice and more.
Paul Drye, catering development manager, St Austell Brewery:
Matching a beer with the sweetness of roasted pepper is simple enough, but the stuffing could change the whole balance of flavours, so I've just used my favourite stuffed pepper recipe as a starting point.
This uses a mixture of bulgar wheat, dates, walnuts and hazelnuts as a filling and topped with bubbling mozzarella. The sweetness of the dates and pepper alongside the nutty bulgar wheat is a combination that's hard to beat.
With this in mind I've chosen beers that play happily with these flavours and have similar characteristics rather than looking for a contrast.
When served in smaller glasses, Porter works wonders with this dish and two well worth trying are Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter with its plummy fruitiness and rich caramel tones, and Old Style Porter from St Peters Brewery - this is bittersweet with very noticeable berry fruits. If you are lucky enough to find yourself in Cornwall, another beer, although not strictly a porter, which does sport the same characteristics is Black Prince - one of St. Austell's best kept secrets. Black Prince is deep, dark and intriguing with a full-bodied fruity flavour, and the perfect partner for this particular version of stuffed pepper.
Rupert Ponsonby, Beer Academy:
I have rarely stuffed a pepper, even in anger, so I feel at a disadvantage here. So I will be simple and opt for a ripe pepper filled with lumpy great garlic cloves, shallots and sweet tomatoes - with sweet basil, cardamom and a severely reduced cask ale sauce.
So my roast peppers will be delicately sweet creatures, relaxed and carefree, but with a smidgeon of caramelisation from the charring process.
If we are to complement this slightly caramelised offering, I would choose beers using a good quantity of crystal malts, giving flavours of Caramac or Ovaltine, showing the same sweet caramel flavours as the peppers. Either lagers or ales can hit the spot, with reddish beers such as Peroni Gran Reserva or Artois Bock springing to mind at higher alcohol levels, but also a whole range of northern milds, or lighter porters and stouts. Porters are one of the best food beers in existence and would pick up beautifully on the creaminess of roasted garlic or olives oils. And yes, cloudy wheat beers would also be yum, their sweet tropical flavours merging seamlessly with the pepper.
If instead a contrast is needed, look no further than citrussy pale ales or India Pale ales.That would make the peppers sit up and think, to set off their exquisite beauty, with their sweet flavours pinned to the wall like an artwork in Tate Modern. Brewing is a form of art, and the more that blackboards in pubs list beer and food matches in easy to understand terms, the more it will help us all to grow an appreciation of that wonderful word 'beer' - in all its many colours and styles.
Ben Bartlett, catering development manager, The Union Pub Company:
Travelling in northern Italy I once tried peppers stuffed with polenta. Large peppers were stuffed with garlic, courgette, tomatoes, polenta and paprika and then baked in the oven. Polenta is made with either coarsely, medium or finely ground dried yellow or white cornmeal, depending on the region and the texture desired.
As it is known today, polenta derives from earlier forms of grain mush or more commonly as gruel or porridge commonly eaten in Roman times and after. When boiled, polenta has smooth creamy textures, caused by the presence of starch molecules dissolved into the water. It's amusing to know southern Italians sometimes refer to Northern Italians by the derogatory term Polentone" (or "pulentun" in dialect) meaning "polenta eater" (literally "big polenta").
It's an easy vegetarian pub dish to pre-prepare and would go well with pale ale such as Thornbridge Blackthorn Ale. This is a contemporary take on the traditional type of Pale Ales and is slightly lighter in colour and bitterer in taste. Using Pale Rye and Marris Otter Malt together with Pioneer Hops, this fabulous combination produces beautiful light golden ale with wonderful grapefruit and lemon aromas. This fruity brew benefits from an excellent medium body and a biting bitterness to the finish. The acidity of the fruity undertones leaves you with a wonderful taste which complements a pepper based dish..
Richard Fox, chef and broadcaster:
When I think of stuffed peppers I go into the realms of lightly piquant Spanish Guindillas, marinated in olive oil and stuffed with fetta. They're perfect as part of a meze starter selection, and even better just nibbled on their own as the perfect foil to a fruity IPA such as YPA from Roosters.
If I'm thinking canape stuff, then it's going to be those pillar-box red Pequillo babies that look like mini Santa Claus hats. Stuffed with cream cheese and chives, they're going to be fab with a champagne flute of Lieffmans Framboise where the cream cheese and the raspberries are going to complement each other perfectly, while the beer cuts through the "clagginess" of cheese and pepper. As far as stuffed capsicums go... well that's just a bit too 80s ve
