Stuffed Peppers
Jan 24, 2020
Stuffed pepper are a delicious weekday dish. Make extra stuffing and serve it as the base of a bowl, or as a side dish later in the week. Vary the grains and in-season vegetables. This recipe uses a combination of quinoa and lentils as the grain.
Ingredients
1/3 cup raw quinoa (1 cup cooked quinoa)
1/3 raw red lentils (1 cup cooked red lentils)
1/2 onion
1 stalk celery
1 carrot
3 small garlic cloves
1 summer squash/zucchini/courgette
1 can diced tomatoes
1 cup garbanzo beans/chickpeas
1 handful fresh parsley
1 handful fresh dill
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
6 small bell peppers/capsicum (try red and yellow for a sweeter taste)
3 cherry tomatoes (optional for decoration)
Preheat oven to 350F/180C.
Prepare quinoa. Optional, soak quinoa overnight or for a few hours (makes digestion easier). Drain and rinse well. Add equal parts quinoa and water to a pan. Bring to boil. Cover and turn off heat. Let sit for 15 minutes.
Prepare lentils. Add lentils to a pot with equal amount of water. Bring to boil. Cover and turn off heat. Let sit for 15 minutes. (Note, this works for red lentils as the cook more quickly than other types of lentils. If substituting and different kind of lentil it will require a longer cooking time).
If you are preparing the lentils and quinoa at the same time, you can cook them in the same pan.
Meanwhile, chop onion, celery and carrot. Add to pan with a little oil (I like coconut oil or olive oil). Mince garlic into pan. Keep on low heat and sauté until wilted. Chop squash and add. Chop parsley and dill.
Drain any water that may be in quinoa and lentil pan. Add to vegetables and stir well.
Add garbanzo beans/chickpeas, diced tomatoes and chopped herbs. Stir well to incorporate. Season to taste with Italian seasoning and salt/pepper.
Carefully cut the top of the peppers remove stem and seeds. Rinse inside. Arrange in a baking dish that will allow for the peppers to stand upright. Use a spoon to add the stuffing to each pepper; gently push down the grain mixture in order to put as much as possible in each pepper.
Optional decoration – and ½ of a cherry tomato to the top of each pepper.
Bake for 20-30 minutes. Serve immediately!
If you have extra grain mixture, you can use it as the base of a bowl for lunch the following day.
Bon Appétit!
Creative Options
Instead of peppers, stuff zucchini/courgette or eggplant/aubergine.
Add various seasonal vegetables such as spinach, acorn squash, broccoli or roasted eggplant/aubergine
Use kidney beans instead of garbanzo beans/chickpeas
Experiment with seasonings such as fresh basil, dried oregano, dried rosemary or crushed red pepper
Add pine nuts for an extra crunch
Nutritional Analysis
