Spanish Stuffed Peppers
Serves: 6
 
A small salad with a vinaigrette goes nicely with the peppers.
Ingredients
  • 6 peppers, preferably of different colors
  • 5 garlic cloves chopped into small pieces
  • 1½ cups of dry quinoa
  • 1 pound of mushrooms diced into small pieces
  • 8 oz package of plain tempeh cut into pea sized pieces
  • 1 large sweet onion diced into small pieces
  • 1 large bunch of fresh parsley chopped, chopped, chopped
  • 1 cup of cooked peas
  • 4 heaping teaspoons of cumin powder
  • 3 tablespoons of tomato paste
  • 3 tablespoons of olive oil plus more to drizzle while cooking if needed
  • 1½ cups of vegan cheese for topping (optional)
  • Salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. Fill a medium pot with 3 cups of water and add salt. Rinse quinoa well and add to the water. Cook over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until all water is absorbed. You should be able to fluff quinoa with a fork and the kernels should be, plump, yellow and have white halos around them.
  2. While the quinoa is cooking, take a small knife and cut the tops off the peppers and save them. Take seeds out of peppers and with a small pairing knife slice the veins away from the body as much as possible. Discard seeds and veins.
  3. In a separate large pot, add the 3 tablespoons of olive oil and cook onions first over medium heat for one minute and then lower heat to medium low and continue cooking until translucent.
  4. Add garlic and whisk around the pot until it is soft and making sure it doesn't burn. You can add extra olive oil here if it will make it easier to cook without burning. Add mushrooms and cook until soft. Add cumin and tomato paste and whisk for a few seconds.
  5. Add tempeh and parsley and cook for another 10 minutes stirring to prevent sticking. Turn heat off.
  6. Add cooked quinoa and mix everything well. Add more olive oil if mixture needs moisture.
  7. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  8. Preheat oven to 350 F. Drizzle some olive oil in a baking pan.
  9. Fill each pepper to the top with tempeh/quinoa stuffing. Add cheese if you'd like to the top. Place peppers inside baking dish and cover with their respective lids. Cook on the middle rack for 45 minutes or until peppers are soft and with a bit of scorch at their tops. You can always peel off the scorch if it bothers you.
  10. Cool for 10 minutes and serve. .
Recipe by Kitchen to Nirvana at https://kitchentonirvana.com/2013/01/14/spanish-stuffed-peppers/