Light and healthy Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers filled with tomatoes, onions, black beans and cilantro, seasoned to perfection and topped with melted cheese!
Ok so I started typing this epic blog post in the middle of watching The Bachelorette….and then it ended and I proceeded to delete everything I had previously typed.
Ummm what the eff?!
I had to delete my entire post because, well, it was all about Sean. The too-good-to-be-true, too-hot-for-cable-television, all-American-perfect-male-specimen-SEAN. What was she thinking letting him go???
First of all, lets state the obvious. Arie is a total creepster. Sure its cute they kiss all the time and he can’t stop touching her, but why not try having an intelligent conversation?? And then when asked what he does on any given night, he goes on to say going out with his friends because he hates being home. Duuuude, you’re about to become a dad. I think weekly night dinners around the table are destined in your immediate future…oh yeah and 5:00 AM wake up calls.
And then there is Jef. Sweet, adorable Jef. No I wasn’t the biggest fan of him in the beginning, but he has really come to surprise me. He’s an old soul with great hair, all wrapped up in a skater boy’s body. Now that Sean’s gone (RIP) I’m totally on board Team Jef and am now hoping he wins the whole thing.
And speaking of beautiful men, yes tonight IS the night ladies. I’m finally going to see the highly anticipated movie Magic Mike. I’m headed there with about 10 of my girlfriends and we’ll of course be downing delicious martinis beforehand. C’mon, would you expect anything less?? One must be prepared for a gyrating Channing Tatum and shirtless Matthew McConaughey.
And on that note, I made some delicious quinoa stuffed bell peppers.  Feel free to make this dish completely clean by omitting the cheese and chopping up fresh tomatoes. You’ll save over 50 calories per serving and I guarantee this will still taste pretty amazing!
Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers
Ingredients
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 ribs celery, chopped
- 1 Tbsp ground cumin
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
- 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes, drained, liquid reserved
- 1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed, drained
- 3/4 cup quinoa
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 cup Trader Joes Pepper Jack cheese
- 4 large red bell peppers, halved lengthwise, ribs removed
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion, celery and jalapeno for about 5 minutes, until soft, then add cumin and garlic and cook for an additional minute. Stir in drained tomatoes (reserving liquid) and cook for 5 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated.
- Stir in black beans, quinoa and 1 1/2 cups water. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until quinoa is tender. Stir in 1 cup of cheese and season with salt and pepper, if desired.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and pour reserved liquid from tomatoes in the bottom of your baking dish.
- Fill each halved bell pepper with 3/4 cup quinoa mixture and place in baking dish. Cover with foil and bake 40 minutes. Transfer stuffed bell peppers onto serving dish and drizzle pan juices over top. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
My family and I loved the recipe!
I have included it in my new weekly menu planning site with a link back to this page, thank you!
Emily from Rainbowdelicious.com
I just made this tonight and lovedddd it, I added ground turkey for a lil bit of meat 🙂 Thanks for posting!!
Thanks for another amazing recipe! I made these the other night and my husband loved them, I even got him to like quinoa! I love finding vegetarian recipes that you don’t feel like you are missing the meat. Here is my blog post about them:
http://lexslifeasanewwife.blogspot.com/2012/08/quinoa-stuffed-bell-peppers.html
I made these the other night. Amazing!! So flavorful! Even my husband like these. He was quite impressed that it was so filling for a vegetarian dish. I freeze fresh herbs in olive oil, so cilantro worked perfect with the flavor combination :).Thanks for the recipe.
All I can say is YUM! I love stuffed peppers, especially when they are stuffed with quinoa!
Made these last night in hopes of proving to my dad (who hates quinoa) that whole grains are delicious. They came out amazing, and he admitted–grudgingly, of course–that they were “edible”. Prep was easy, and I left out the jalapeno because the pepper jack cheese made it spicy enough for me; that’s just personal preference. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
~Gabriella
Ha, I just went with all my girl friends from work to see Magic Mike the other day – besides the story line being awful – the eye candy was definitely wonderful (but that’s why we were there, right?!) These peppers look amazing!
She CANNOT pick Arie! I will personally call her and tell her she made a giganto mistake and to please text me Sean’s # asap…. 🙂
LOVE this quinoa peppers! I was literally just hunting for a recipe like this, looks delish!
Stuffed peppers are the best! I will have to put this on the menu very soon. I totally agree with you, I would have totally picked Sean. She’s nuts to let him go.
I’m always looking for new ways to eat quinoa. This is great!