Happy Meatless Monday! Today I am featuring a truly delicioso recipe for quinoa stuffed peppers that I found while searching good old vegetariantimes.com. I am all about quinoa and have been using it more and more as my go to grain. Like most whole grains quinoa is packed with fiber, but what makes it superior to the rest is its protein content. It contains about 15g of protein per cup!
I was leery that this recipe might be a little boring, but I was pleasantly proven wrong. These peppers are so full of flavor! They also keep well, so if you can’t finish all your peppers in one serving, pack them up and have them for lunch the following day.
For those who follow a vegan lifestyle the cheese is an optional ingredient. I think that the quinoa and the rest of the ingredients are super flavorful and the cheese is definitely not required.
Ingredients:
Serves 8
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped (1 cup)
- 2 Tbs. olive oil
- 2 ribs celery, finely chopped (1/2 cup)
- 1 Tbs. ground cumin
- 2 cloves garlic, minced (2 tsp.)
- 1 10-oz. pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
- 2 15-oz. cans diced tomatoes, drained, liquid reserved
- 1 15-oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
- 3/4 cup quinoa
- 3 large carrots, grated (1 1/2 cups)
- 1 1/2 cups grated reduced-fat pepper Jack cheese, divided (optional)
- 4 large red bell peppers, halved lengthwise, ribs removed
Directions:
1. Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and celery, and cook 5 minutes, or until soft. Add cumin and garlic, and sauté 1 minute. Stir in spinach and drained tomatoes. Cook 5 minutes, or until most of liquid has evaporated.
2. Stir in black beans, quinoa, carrots, and 2 cups water. Cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 20 minutes, or until quinoa is tender. Stir in 1 cup cheese. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.
3. Preheat oven to 350°F. Pour liquid from tomatoes in bottom of baking dish.
4. Fill each bell pepper half with heaping 3/4-cup quinoa mixture, and place in baking dish. Cover with foil, and bake 1 hour. 
5. Uncover, and sprinkle each pepper with 1 Tbs. remaining cheese. Bake 15 minutes more, or until tops of stuffed peppers are browned. Let stand 5 minutes. Transfer stuffed peppers to serving plates, and drizzle each with pan juices before serving. 
What did you make for Meatless Monday?
Buen Provecho!
grow cook eat nyc 
Delicioso! I def want to try this recipe. Do you use strictly red peppers or can I use the sweet yellow bell as well?
You can def use any color pepper! I personally am a fan of the orange!
as the direct benefactor to Meatless Monday’s, the quinoa stuffed pepper recipe is what i call “A must eat”. Like Bri, i was thinking the flavor would be alittle more mild, but i was wrong, i think the tomato’s really add a great dynamic. Again, two thumbs up, healthy and delicious
Yum! Quinoa is like a miracle food. It’s easy to cook, and you can do so much with it. I made quinoa pilaf for my family this week. They had never tried it before and it was a hit. I mixed it with veggies and soy sauce. I wrote about it on my blog (veggievinyasa.com). It’s the post called Crazy About Quinoa. I will definitely try this stuffed pepper recipe in the near future!
This sounds great! I’ve never had quinoa before but it sounds like I’m missing out 🙂
Those have to be the prettiest stuffed peppers I’ve seen!
This looks delicious. I am always on the lookout for ways to use quinoa. I’m going to try this!