The other day I bought a bag of the most gorgeous colored peppers (red-orange-yellow) on purpose. Now wait, quit raising your eye at me with the “on purpose” comment. See growing up I think I would have rather eaten dirt with a worm in it than put a pepper in my mouth. I was SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCH a picky eater. I mean really, REALLY bad. However as I got older and my tastes became more refined I forced myself to incorporate those ‘cucka’ foods I hated as a child into my diet. I gave them a chance essentially. Like you know how your parents always said “If you’ve never tried it, how do you know you don’t like it???” or my favorite “There are starving kids in X part of the world” to which I would respond with “Well then let’s package it up and ship it to them!” Yeah, that sass was never quite appreciated. Well once I started giving those foods a chance I realized that they didn’t suck, I wasn’t going to die from yuckiness and that I actually liked them. Now sure there are some foods that I still refuse to eat (mayo/beets/liver and so forth) but the list has gone down extensively. But with that I’ve become a HUGE food snob. The peppers now have to be of good quality, no mush, no softness. They must be firm and sweet.
So as I was saying I bought this bag of peppers. Now traditionally I’d stuff them with rice and ground beef/turkey/tomato sauce mixture but I just didn’t want that. I wanted something not so heavy but rather creamy if you will. As I was standing there I spied the head of broccoli I just purchased. Glorious and bright green begging to be eaten. Since I had some quinoa already made up I decided to give it a whirl and stuff these peppers with a quinoa broccoli mixture. Man I am so happy that I did!
They were so cheesy and packed with broccoli. And that luscious quinoa pushed it over the edge!
These were AWESOME! A total vegetarian’s delight! But even those meat lovers will LOVE these!
Keep looking and drooling! I made extra; I’ll share!
PrintQuinoa Broccoli Cheddar Stuffed Peppers
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Ingredients
- 6 bell peppers (red, orange or yellow), tops cut off and seeds removed
- 3 cups Cooked Quinoa (preferably cooked in chicken or vegetable stock)
- 1 large egg
- 2 cups chopped fresh broccoli
- 1 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 3 cups sharp cheddar, shredded
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F with the rack in the middle.
- Lightly spray a glass or ceramic baking dish (must have 2” sides).
- In a bowl add the cooked quinoa, broccoli, salt, pepper and 2 cups of cheese.
- Mix to blend.
- Add in the egg and mix well to incorporate.
- Using a spoon fill each pepper with the mixture and mound it 1/2” towards the center.
- Measure out a piece of tin foil that will cover the peppers but try not to let it touch the tops.
- Spray the side of the foil that will be closest to the pepper and then cover them trying to tent it.
- Be sure to crimp the foil around the sides of your pan.
- Bake for 90 minutes.
- Remove the foil and pierce the pepper with a knife. It should be soft but have some give.
- Top the peppers with the remaining cup of cheese and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted.
- Remove from oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
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