I can honestly say that I make stuffed peppers about twice each cool season, and I have never made them the same way twice. Sometimes I stuff them with quinoa and veggies, sometimes with brown rice. When I was a little girl my Mom stuffed green peppers with hamburger & rice and spaghetti sauce. Some folks use sausage in their stuffing. What I am trying to say is that there’s no limit to the flavor combinations you can make.

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon Olive oil
  • 1 rib Celery, chopped
  • ½ of an Onion, chopped
  • 1 Carrot, chopped
  • 2 cloves Garlic
  • 1/2 small Eggplant, chopped
  • 6 Mushrooms, chopped
  • 1/2 of a Summer squash, chopped
  • 1/2 of a Zucchini, chopped
  • Handful of Spinach, sliced into ribbons
  • ½ can of Aduki beans
  • Parmesan cheese
  • 1 cup Quinoa
  • 2 cups Chicken or vegetable broth
  • 2 cups Tomato sauce (half for the stuffing, half for the baking dish)
  • 2-4 Red peppers (depending on how many you plan to stuff)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375
  2. In a large fry pan heat the olive oil, then add the celery, onion and carrot and cook for 3 to 4 minutes
  3. In a small sauce pan bring the quinoa & broth to a boil, then turn heat down to low, cover with a lid, and cook for 15 minutes
  4. To the fry pan add garlic, eggplant, mushrooms, summer squash and zucchini and cook for 6 to 8 minutes
  5. Set a large pot full of salted water to boil, cut the tops off of the peppers and remove their seeds while leaving the peppers whole
  6. Add to the fry pan the spinach and beans, and any seasonings you might care for (salt, pepper, oregano, basil, cayenne, crushed red pepper, parsley- for instance)
  7. Add the whole peppers to the boiling water, making sure that they are totally submerged, and cook for 3 minutes
  8. Add the cooked quinoa to the vegetables into the fry pan, pour in 1 cup of tomato sauce, and simmer for 5 minutes to allow the flavors to come together, add Parmesan cheese to your taste
  9. Pull the cooked peppers out of the boiling water and run under cool water to stop the cooking
  10. Spray a loaf pan (for 2 peppers) or square baking dish (for 4 peppers) with baking spray and pour 1 cup of tomato sauce into the bottom of the pan
  11. Stuff peppers with quinoa & vegetable mixture and place in baking pan
  12. Cover baking dish with foil to prevent peppers from burning and bake for 20 minutes

Note: none of these ingredients are set in stone.  If you don’t like something- leave it out.  If you want to add things like artichoke hearts, olives, peas, broccoli, fresh tomatoes, anything– just add them.

We had the peppers as a second course, after spinach salads with blueberries & tomatoes.

By : Jess Tags: