Light Stuffed Tomatoes

📝 Ingredients

• 8 large, very firm tomatoes (about 200 g each)
• 500 g lean minced beef (5% fat)
• 200 g long-grain rice
• 1 brown onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 20 g fresh parsley (about a third of a bunch)
• 30 g breadcrumbs
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp herbes de Provence
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Salt, black pepper

🍴 Utensils

• Large gratin dish
• Teaspoon
• 2 mixing bowls
• Frying pan
• Colander
• Cutting board and knife

📖 Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Wash the tomatoes and slice a lid about 1 cm thick off the stalk end of each one. Set the lids aside.
2. Over a mixing bowl, hollow out the tomatoes with a teaspoon, leaving about 5 mm of flesh against the skin so they hold their shape during cooking. Roughly chop the scooped-out pulp and return it to the bowl with all its juice.
3. Lightly salt the inside of the tomatoes and turn them upside down on a plate for 10 minutes to release their water. Meanwhile, peel and finely chop the onion and garlic, and chop the parsley.
4. In a frying pan, fry the onion in the olive oil over a medium heat for 3 minutes until translucent. Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds, then take off the heat and leave to cool slightly: stuffing that's too hot would cook the egg.
5. In another mixing bowl, mix the minced beef, fried onion and garlic, parsley, breadcrumbs, egg and herbes de Provence by hand. Season with ½ tsp salt and some pepper. The stuffing should be even and hold together when you squeeze a ball of it.
6. Dissolve the stock cube in 200 ml hot water. Rinse the rice in a sieve until the water runs almost clear, then spread it over the bottom of the gratin dish. Pour over the chopped pulp with its juice and the stock, and stir to spread the rice in an even layer.
7. Fill each tomato with stuffing, pressing it down lightly and shaping a small dome on top. Set them on the rice, packed tightly together, and put the lids back on.
8. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. Halfway through, check the rice: if there's no liquid left in the bottom of the dish, add 50 to 100 ml hot water between the tomatoes, never over them. The stuffing is cooked when the juices that come out are clear, not pink.
9. Take the dish out and leave to rest for 5 minutes: the rice finishes soaking up the juices and becomes meltingly soft. Serve 2 tomatoes per person with a generous spoonful of rice from the bottom of the dish.