There we were, shopping for groceries, admiring all the colorful summer produce (at least I was), and there they were, sticking out like a sore thumb: black bell peppers.
Ok, I’ll stop acting like a dork and making up stories out of grocery trips. But they are kinda cool. At least, I’ve never seen or heard of them before. We bought a couple and a couple red peppers for good measure.
The second surprise came when we cut them open and they were green inside. I suppose I could’ve guessed that. They did have greenish streaks when I looked at them carefully. I wanted to make something that would feature their color. I decided on stuffed peppers, since they would stay mostly whole. Apparently they turn green as you cook them, so I guess my plans were somewhat thwarted. That doesn’t mean the peppers weren’t good though.
- 4 bell peppers, de-stemmed, de-seeded, de-ribbed
- 1 cup cooked quinoa
- 8 ounces tempeh, crumbled
- 1 medium yellow onion, minced
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 8-ounce can of tomato sauce
- 2 cups well-packed torn spinach
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- freshly cracked black pepper
- sea salt
- 1/4 cup water
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat.
- Add the tempeh, season with salt and pepper, and cook for about 5 minutes, until browned
- Push the tempeh over to one side of the pan, add the onion and garlic. Cook for a few minutes, until starting to brown around the edges.
- Remove from heat and mix in the spinach, quinoa, parsley, rosemary, red pepper, and most but not all of the tomato sauce. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
- Stuff the peppers with the filling and place in a casserole dish. Top with the remaining tomato sauce. Add the water to the casserole dish.
- Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes, the peppers will look wrinkled. Serve.
(Serves 4)
I did not precook the peppers before stuffing them because I wanted the finished peppers to be firmer. If you’d like the peppers to be softer you can cook them in boiling water for a few minutes before stuffing them. Alternatively, you can roast them in the oven (it’s on anyway) for 15ish minutes before stuffing.
Many stuffed pepper recipes call for cheese on top. I omitted cheese this time, but you’re certainly welcome to add it.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I made stuffed peppers for supper last nite. Green ones and red ones. The black ones remind me of a dark eggplant color. I stuffed mine with sauteed onions & garlic, zucchini, chopped cabbage, (from a bag, so handy,) cranberries, (dehydrated from a bag as well, thank you SunMaid) and rice. Spices included cumin, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, Coleman powdered mustard, ginger, cayenne and cinnamon. I made two batches, one with ground beef that I precooked for my wife, and the straight veggie version for me. I must say, I think the cranberries were the most fun addition. I gave the peps a 5 minute blanch after coring them, then stuffed ‘em, and put them in a 350ยบ oven for 45 min to let everything meld nicely. Topped with tomato sauce and generous portion of fresh basil. Yummy! Your sound dee-lish too. You’ll have to tell me about tempeh. It still is a mystery to me. I’ve never used it. Tofu, yes. Tempeh, no. Am I missing something good here?
Those peppers sound great and quite healthy to boot. I think you just have to try tempeh to figure out if you like it or not. It’s very different from tofu. Unlike tofu, it certainly has a distinctive taste, kind of mushroomy. I like it. Mike likes it enough. It’s a good way to mix things up a bit.