Stuffed Red Peppers
1 cup quinoa
2 cups vegetable stock
2 cups spinach
2 tomatoes, diced
1 zucchini, grated
1 carrot, grated
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 lemon, juiced
4 red bell peppers, tops cut off, cored and seeded
salt and pepper, to taste
bread crumbs, optional
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place quinoa and vegetable stock in a pot and bring stock to a boil. Turn down heat, cover with lid and let simmer for 20-25 minutes until stock is fully absorbed into quinoa.
2. In a large bowl, add spinach, tomatoes, zucchini, carrot, onion, garlic, cilantro, olive oil, lemon juice and cooked quinoa. Mix all ingredients together and taste before you add any salt or pepper. Depending on the sodium content in the vegetable broth you might not need any salt.
3. If desired, cut a tiny bit of the bottoms off the peppers so they stand straight when they are cooking. With your hands, stuff peppers tightly with quinoa mixture. Once all the peppers are filled, you can top them with bread crumbs and drizzle a little olive oil on top, if desired.
34Place the peppers in the oven for 30-45 minutes depending on the size of the pepper until it is soft and begins to look slightly wrinkled. If you have leftover filling it I usually put it on a plate and top with stuffed pepper, it looks amazing. Enjoy!
Source of recipe: I wrote this recipe.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
Wow! That's a stuffed pepper! I was very surprised and happy with how complimentary the citrus was to the cilantro. I cut my peppers in half to cook open. I did notice that a few quinoa got crunchy. Overall, wonderful and a lovely addition to the recipe collection here!!! Thank you