Rest Day Recipe | Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers

This summer, as I've mentioned before, Kip and I are experimenting with getting our vegetables from a CSA farm share. We use Farmer Dave's, out of Dracut, MA and so far it has been a great experience! We have a small share, but it's so plentiful that we're continually finding ourselves with leftover, unused veggies after a week, so we've been looking for creative ways to put more of these healthy, farm fresh vegetables into our meals. This weekend we tried this recipe for quinoa stuffed bell peppers, with a few slight variations of our own.

Not only were we able to take full advantage of our fresh veggies by using five (5!) different vegetables in one meal, we also discovered a delicious, protein-filled vegetarian dish that we will be returning to quite often! Although we are definitely meat-lovers in this house, we're also thinking and praying through choices that we make in regards to eating meat, both in a healthy way and an ethical way. So, I'm always thrilled to find great vegetarian meals that provide everything our bodies need. We love that this dish is a healthy meal packed full of plenty or vitamins and nutrients, and, thanks to the quinoa, also full of protein, amino acids, and iron. Quinoa has a nutty flavor/texture, so it really works great as a meat replacement, and as my husband said, "That quinoa is a sneaky filler upper!" We had plenty of leftovers, which are now in our freezer and will be used as a soup base sometime in the coming weeks. 

So, here's what I did to make these stuffed peppers work for us:

1.) I cooked the Quinoa. It's two parts water, one part Quinoa. I cooked 2 cups water and 1 cup quinoa. I used red quinoa that I picked up at my local spice store, but any kind would work just fine. I just happen to think the red is the prettiest. 

2.) I sauteed a chopped up jalapeno (minus the seeds, but next time we might add a few of those for more kick) and some chopped up green onions, then I added some fresh corn, chopped spinach, minced garlic, cumin, salt and pepper and I heated the mixture until the spinach began to wilt and it smelled really, really fragrant.

3.) I sliced the bell peppers open, removed the seeds and membranes, and boiled in water until they began to get tender

4.) I drained the quinoa and added the sauteed mixture to the quinoa and mixed it together well. After it cooled I mixed in feta cheese.

5.) I then sauteed some sliced onions in a little oil and some white wine.

6.) I put the onions in the bottom of a square baking dish, placed the peppers on top and filled them with the quinoa mixture.

7.) I baked them on 400 for 25 minutes, and they came out looking like this:

They were delicious! Even Lucy loved them. They were bursting with flavor, and the feta added a rich saltiness to them that worked beautifully! It's a really easy meal to put together, with about 15 minutes of prep time and 25 minutes of baking time. I didn't serve them with anything else because they are already packed full of veggies and grains, so it made for an easy meal for this mom of a toddler to cook while still chasing after my adventurous little lady.

Give them a try and let me know what you think!