Mediterranean stuffed tomatoes

The best girlfriend ever and myself had a couple of colleagues from work over at my place, and to offer them something a bit different from the usual Kiwiana fare of whole roasted pigs, crisps and sandwiches, my significant other decided to introduce some more mediterranean nibbles. One of the more popular hors d'oeuvre were these very refreshing and yummy tomatoes, filled with a heavily modified taboule, which I was able to assist in making by almost getting a repetitive stress injury by chopping furiously.

Ingredients for 15 tomatoes:

• 1 onion
• 1 cup dry roasted sunflower seeds
• 1 red (bell) pepper
• 1 large bunch of flat leaved parsley
• freshly ground black pepper
• two teaspoons extra virgine olive oil
• garlic to your liking
• 4 teaspoons of lemon juice
• 15 small tomatoes (but not cocktail tomatoes)

Chop onions, garlic, pepper and parsley into very fine little cubes (you want an almost grainy texture), add sunflower seeds, olive oil and lemon juice and mix well. Add pepper to your liking and put mixture aside. Now cut off the top quarter of each tomato and carefully scoop out the innards, leaving a hollow shell (but be careful not to punch holes in the outside).

Now fill the tomatoes carefully with the aromatic mixture, place a fresh little basil leave on top of each tomato and serve within the next hour.

Bon appetite!