Description
A recipe for red peppers stuffed with a meatless Mexican-style quinoa filling featuring quinoa, corn and black beans.
Ingredients
1/2 cup quinoa, uncooked (or 1 cup cooked if using ready-to-eat)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup broth or water
2 ears of corn or 1 cup frozen or canned corn
3 large red peppers (or orange or yellow), sliced in half from stem to bottom and seeds removed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small sweet onion or half of a large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (15-oz) can of black beans, drained
1/2 cup fresh salsa or salsa of choice
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
Salt to taste
1 cup shredded cheese or 6 slices of cheese (Mexican blend, colby jack, pepper jack, monterey jack, etc)
Toppings of choice
Instructions
PREP
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare an 11×7 or 13×9 rectangular baking dish by spraying with nonstick cooking spray.
COOK THE QUINOA
Rinse quinoa and place in a pot with 1 cup of broth or water and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil and then cover and reduce to very low heat. Cook for 20 minutes until fluffy.
COOK THE CORN
Bring a pot of water to a boil and drop two ears of corn in. Turn off heat and let set, covered, while quinoa cooks. When quinoa is done, remove from water and cool until you can handle to slice the kernels off the cob.
PARBOIL THE PEPPERS
Bring another pot of water to a boil and drop halved peppers in. Cook for 5 minutes and then gently remove from water using tongs, drain well and place in baking dish, cut side up.
MAKE THE MEXICAN-STYLE QUINOA
Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add diced onions and sauté until softened and translucent. Add the garlic and cook for one more minute. Allowing it to soften but not letting it burn. Add the cooked quinoa, corn, black beans, salsa, spices, cilantro, lime juice and salt. Mix everything until heated through and combined.
ASSEMBLE THE PEPPERS
Spoon a generous amount of the quinoa filling into each pepper. I like to smush it down with the back of the spoon to make sure it’s filling all crevices and really stuffed full! I also mound it over the top. Top with shredded cheese or cheese slices and bake for about 20-25 minutes until heated through and cheese is bubbly and a little browned.
Serve with toppings of your choice.
Notes
- You can add ground meat to this recipe by sautéing 1/2 pound of ground beef, turkey or chicken with the onions.
- This recipe can be easily doubled.
- Red, yellow and orange peppers work great but I would recommend avoiding green unless you just really like them.
- Delicious loaded up with toppings and served with blue corn tortilla chips.
- Leftovers are amazing!