Looking for another low-carb alternative to lettuce wraps? These sweet pepper poppers are stuffed with sardine salad, but you can use them for a variety of sandwich fillings. You won’t miss the bread when you bite into one of these colorful and flavorful mini peppers. Whether you are following a Mediterranean diet or just trying to get more veggies in, this recipe is for you.
If you enjoyed my Taco-Stuffed Mini Bell Peppers, today’s recipe will be right up your alley. (And if you have not tried them yet, what is stopping you? They are delicious!) These sardine-stuffed sweet pepper poppers are the perfect light lunch option.
Why are they so great? First, you get the Mediterranean-inspired sardine salad, loaded with sun-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives, and capers. I’ve packed all of that goodness into mini sweet peppers for some crunch and a boost of potentially beneficial phytonutrients.
It can be tough in the United States to maintain healthy eating habits in the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Adding some of the recipes on this website to your repertoire may help you with your health goals.
Just make sure that you bite into these poppers from the top only to prevent the salad from shooting out. Biting them from the bottom may create something akin to a sardine salad cannon. I suppose this would possibly be fun for kids, but not so fun for cleaning up.
Because we’ve skipped the bread, these poppers are not only low-calorie, they are also only 14 grams of net carbs per serving. What do you have to lose by trying them out?
And now for the disclaimer…
All recipes on this website may or may not be appropriate for you, depending on your medical needs and personal preferences. Consult with a registered dietitian or your physician if you need help determining the dietary pattern that may be best for you.
The calorie information is an estimate provided as a courtesy. It will differ depending on the specific brands and ingredients that you use. Calorie information on food labels may be wildly inaccurate, so please don’t sweat the numbers too much.
For more information on how the three recipe levels may help with a weight management goal, refer to this post. Let’s get cooking!
Sweet Pepper Poppers Stuffed with Sardine Salad
Ingredients
- 2 tins sardines with bones, packed in olive oil, drained (124 g per tin)
- 2 T mayonnaise (I used Sir Kensington's brand)
- 2 T sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained (julienned)
- 10 pitted kalamata olives, halved
- 1 t drained capers
- ½ t garlic powder
- ½ t lime zest
- ¼ t dried dill
- ¼ t black pepper
- ¼ t dried mustard powder
- 14-16 mini bell peppers, tops cut off, seeded
Instructions
- Mash the sardines with a fork. Mix all of the ingredients except the mini bell peppers together.
- Pack the filling into each mini bell pepper. I heaped the sardine salad into each pepper like I was filling a little ice cream cone.
- Enjoy! Remember to bite each pepper from the top or risk a sardine salad explosion!
Notes
This is a level 1 recipe (may help support fat loss). You could lighten this recipe a tad more by using plain Greek yogurt in place of the mayo. However, you’re already getting plenty of calcium and protein from the sardines in this low-calorie recipe. (And yes, the sun-dried tomatoes count as dried fruit, but the amount here is minimal.) If you need a higher energy recipe, you could enjoy the sardine salad with whole-grain bread or crackers instead. Alternatively, you could eat the whole batch of pepper poppers yourself (two servings).
Nutrition
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These peppers are just begging for somebody to draw little eyes on them.
Very cute 😉