I went to dinner at my sister's house a few weeks ago and she made incredible quinoa stuffed peppers. I didn't have the ingredients to make the same recipe a few weeks later, so I made up my own. It is more of a mexican quinoa stuffed pepper, and I also cut them a little different (pictures of both types below). I encourage you to play around with ingredients and shaping your peppers, it's a lot of fun and quinoa is super versatile!
(my sister's turkey and quinoa peppers)
(my mexican quinoa stuffed peppers)
Ingredients:
1/2 diced yellow onion
1T olive oil
1/4 cup cooked pancetta (can replace with ground beef or shredded chicken)
2 cloves diced garlic
1/2T cumin
7 ounces petite cut diced tomatoes
1 cup water
1/2 cup quinoa
1 teaspoon fresh cilantro
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
3 bell peppers (any color, but I found red the tastiest)
1/2 t salt
Directions:
Step 1: Preheat oven to 400F. In a large pan cook onion, cumin, olive oil, and diced garlic on med/high heat for five minutes. Add tomatoes and cook an additional 5 minutes.
Step 2: Add water and turn heat to high, bringing the mixture to a boil. Add the quinoa and cilantro. Let cook for 10-20 minutes, depending on the recommendation of your specific type of quinoa (on the book--mine was 20 minutes).
Step 3: Once quinoa is cooked, add pancetta, salt, and parmesan cheese. Stir thoroughly.
Step 4: Cut your peppers to the desired shape and de-seed and remove stem. Place the peppers on a cooking sheet covered with tin foil. Fill the peppers with your cooked mixture. Cover peppers with loose tin foil and cook in oven for 25 minutes.
Step 5: Remove peppers from oven and sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Cook in oven, uncovered, for an additional 7-10 minutes, or until cheese is melted.
Serves 2-3.
