Quinoa-Stuffed Peppers

From the Veggie Cookbook

Plant Based

Serves 4

Veggie

There’s a lot of hype about quinoa, but I have to say, I’m a total convert. Its distinctive nutty taste works brilliantly against the smoky paprika and aromatic fennel in these super-savoury stuffed peppers. Oh, and if you’re cooking your own rather than using ready-cooked quinoa, try toasting it in the pan before adding your liquid, which will bring out even more nuttiness.

Serves:

Ingredients

4 red, orange or yellow peppers, or a mixture, halved from stalk end to base, cored and deseeded
Olive oil, for sautéing
1 white onion, finely diced
2 carrots, finely diced
1 fennel bulb, trimmed and finely diced
1 teaspoon hot smoked or sweet smoked paprika (sweet smoked isn’t as spicy)
50g quinoa, cooked according to the pack instructions, or 125g ready-cooked quinoa
100g cherry tomatoes, roughly chopped
75g pine nuts, toasted
50g pitted black olives, roughly chopped
1 bunch of flat leaf parsley, leaves picked and finely chopped, plus extra to garnish
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1
Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/Gas Mark 6.
2
Arrange the peppers, cut side up, in a shallow roasting tin. Sprinkle over some salt and pepper and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
3
Meanwhile, heat enough olive oil to coat the base of a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onion, carrots and fennel to the pan with a pinch of salt and sauté, stirring regularly, for 15 minutes until soft, sweet and translucent and starting to brown in places. Stir in the smoked or sweet paprika and toast for a minute or so.
4
Tip the sautéed vegetable mixture into a mixing bowl and stir in all the remaining ingredients. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
5
Divide the quinoa and vegetable mixture between the pepper halves and bake for 30–35 minutes until the peppers are soft to the point of a knife.
6
Remove from the oven and leave the peppers to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, which helps the filling to firm up, before lifting them out and serving garnished with extra chopped parsley.

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“THIS STUFFED PEPPER DISH LOOKS VERY YUMMY YUMMY AND DELICIOUS”

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