Southwest Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Lets talk about something I love: Bell Peppers. They are delicious and I could eat them like you would an apple. I don't because it's not socially acceptable and I figure I'm already weird enough, no need to add to that. Not to mention the fact that they're good for you! At only 28 calories for medium (slightly less than 3 inches long) pepper you get 196% of your daily vitamin C and 58 % of your daily vitamin A. Not to shabby if you ask me.

Sadly, the supermarkets play on people's desire for their food to look as good as it tastes and if you want pretty peppers (AKA not green), you have to pay an arm and a leg for them. Every so often Kroger will have them on sale for less than $1 each so when they do I take advantage and make one of my all time favorite recipes: stuffed peppers.

Stuffed peppers are so easy and so versatile. You can make them in whatever flavor combination your heart desires. I've made Italian style where they were cooked in tomato juice, Santa Fe style with turkey, I've even made them in a slow cooker! The possibilities really are endless.

Start by cutting the tops off of your peppers.

For tonight's culinary adventure I actually chose a vegetarian friendly recipe. Not because I'm vegetarian by any means of the word. I chose this recipe because I wanted to get my protein from something other than my standard grilled chicken. With quinoa AND black beans this recipe does just that!

What you'll need:

6 Bell Peppers 

1 cup dry quinoa & 2 cups water

15 oz can corn kernels - low or no sodium if you can find it

15 oz can black beans - low or no sodium if you can find it

4 oz can diced green chiles

2 roma tomatoes, diced

1/2 yellow onion - I omitted this

1/2 cup shredded pepper jack cheese - I omitted this

1 package fajita seasoning - I opted just to add cumin and crushed red pepper to taste

Seeded and cored peppers with the remains from the tops.

 What you'll do:

1. Set your oven to 350F. Combine the quinoa and water in a sauce pot and bring the water to a boil. Turn the heat to low, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. The quinoa should completely absorb the water and look fluffy. Yes. I said fluffy.
2. Prepare your peppers by cutting off the tops and then seeding the insides. I saved the leftovers from the tops to use on my salads this week but you could easily add them into your filling!                    



Fluffy quinoa!

3.  Dice your tomatoes and rinse and strain the beans and corn.
4. When your quinoa is nice and fluffy transfer it to a big mixing bowl and add in all of the remaining ingredients. 
5. Line your baking dish of choice with tin foil and nestle your peppers in. 
6. Fill each pepper with about a cup of filling. I placed in 1/2 of a cup and then pressed it down with a spoon before adding the second 1/2 cup. Trying to add the whole cup at once would have guaranteed a huge mess. At least, for me it would have.
7. Bake your delicious stuffed peppers for 25-30 minutes. 
8. Once they have cooled for maybe 5 minutes, DIG IN! I bet they would be delicious topped with some sour cream or guacamole, or heck go for both. I plan to top mine with shredded cheese and then re-heat them to melt the cheese a little, which is why I omitted the cheese from the filling recipe. 

Ready for the oven! 

I plan to enjoy these babies for lunch this week so once they came out of the oven I transferred them to  separate containers. If you do this, be sure to let them cool before moving them to the refrigerator. Moving them there directly after baking will cause the container to condensate, resulting in soggy peppers and no one wants to eat a soggy pepper!

For today's post I got my inspiration here and my nutritional information here.



Bon appetit!
Lauren