Mini Stuffed Peppers

Happy Taco Tuesday! As most of you know, I love a good Taco Tuesday and I am always looking for creative new ways to sass up my Mexican food recipes. I whipped these little cuties up for a dinner party, and they were a huge hit. What I love about  these mini stuffed peppers is that they are gluten-free and vegan! If you want to add a little bit of gooey cheese, you can do so to some or all of them just before you pop these little guys into the oven. I also really liked that I could make them ahead of time, bring them to the dinner party, and pop them in the oven when I got there. They cooked up in no time, and I was able to serve a hot appetizer, while the hostess with the mostess put the finishing touches on the main course. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did and please let me know your thoughts.

Ingredients

  • 1 Bag of Mini Rainbow Peppers, I used 6 for this recipe
  • 1/2 Cup of Quinoa, cooked
  • 1/2 Can of Black Beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1/4 Jalapeno, seeded and diced
  • 1/4 Yellow onion, diced
  • 1/2 Tsp. Cumin, or more to taste
  • 1/2 Tsp. Granulated Garlic, or more to taste
  • 1 Clove Garlic, minced
  • Pinch of Salt
  • Pinch of Pepper
  • 2 TBS Cilantro, minced
  • 1 Tsp Ghee or Olive Oil
  • 1 Avocado, pitted and smashed
  • Salsa, optional
  • A few TBS of Sassy Sauce, optional
  • Pepper Jack Cheese, optional

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Cook your quinoa. You can follow my quinoa recipe, just know that you will have extra to use in your other weekly meals.
  3. Empty, drain, and rinse your black beans. Set a side.
  4. Cut peppers in half, removed stem, seeds and any membrane so that they look like little cups. Set aside.
  5. Add the ghee or olive oil to a saute pan, lightly saute the onion, garlic and jalapeno with the cumin and granulated garlic for 1-2 mins (just to take the edge off). Set aside.
  6. Once the quinoa is cooked toss it into a bowl with the onion, garlic and jalapeno mixture.
  7. Mix in the cilantro and half or a whole can of black beans. It just depends how black beany you want it. Feel free to toss a couple of tablespoons of salsa in this mixture if you are feeling sassy.
  8. Season quinoa mixture with salt and pepper and add more cumin and granulated garlic if you want. Set aside.
  9. Arrange your peppers into your baking dish.
  10. Layer each pepper with a little sassy sauce if you want to keep it vegan, or place a little bit of cheese in the bottom of the pepper. You can also use both the sassy sauce and the cheese in the bottom of the pepper if you want the best of both worlds.
  11. Fill each pepper with the quinoa mixture and set it back into baking dish.
  12. Top with a small thin slice of pepper jack cheese if that is you thing, or don’t if you want to keep it dairy free.
  13. Bake for 25 minutes, just to warm everything up, to cook the pepper a bit and to melt the cheese if you are using it. You want the pepper to maintain its crunch so that you an easily pick it up.
  14. While your peppers are cooking, mash-up one avocado and season with salt and pepper to taste.
  15. Remove the peppers from the oven and top it with a dab of avocado and a few drops of hot sauce if you need more spice. YUM!Mini Stuffed Pepper w cheese

I added cheese to some of mine and both versions were delicious!

Happy Taco Tuesday!

 

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