Baked Stuffed Bell Peppers (Vegetarian)
These bell peppers are stuffed with a delicious combination of quinoa, corn, and black beans. All these satisfying ingredients are seasoned and then mixed in a slightly sweet, and spicy tomato sauce. The sauce is infused with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce to give the dish a very distinctive and delightful smoky flavor.
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Servings: servings
Calories: 273kcal
Ingredients
- 6 bell peppers (any color of your preference)
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1/3 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt ( I use kosher salt)
- 1 1/2 cup tomato sauce
- 1 cup corn (canned )
- 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (canned )
- 1 cup black beans (canned)
To cook quinoa
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa ( 4 cups if using pre-cooked quinoa)
- 2 cups water (not needed if using pre-cooked quinoa)
Instructions
How to make Stuffed Bell Peppers:
- The first step is to preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Then, prepare the peppers to be stuffed. For this cut the top of the peppers. Then carefully remove the seeds and the white membrane inside of the peppers. Make sure to be gentle during this process to avoid breaking the pepper. I suggest leaving the green stem on so that it stays intact and also makes it easy to grab.
- Place the peppers on a baking sheet and drizzle them with some olive oil. I use a small brush to make sure all the peppers are coated with the oil.
- Then, sprinkle some salt, and black pepper to taste and set aside.
Meanwhile, let’s prepare the quinoa mixture.
- In this recipe, I used plain quinoa and followed the package instructions. To start, place 1 cup of quinoa in a small pan and add 2 cups of water.
- Place in the stove on high heat and bring it to boil. Then reduce the temperature to the low, cover, and cook for 15 minutes. You can check out my 15 Minutes Simple Quinoa Instructions for more detailed steps on how to cook quinoa or you can skip this step and get pre-cooked packages of quinoa.
To prepare the sauce:
- In a small saucepan add 1 ½ cup of tomato sauce and place on the stove over medium-low heat.
- Add one chipotle pepper, 1 teaspoon salt(I use kosher salt), ½ teaspoon black pepper, 1 teaspoon olive oil, and 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, to the sauce and combine.
- Using a fork, I like to break the chipotle pepper into small pieces. Bring the sauce to a simmer ( about 3 to 5 minutes) and set aside. **I suggest making extra sauce and save some to drizzle it onto the peppers.
Now let’s combine all these ingredients.
- In the same pot you cooked the quinoa, add half of the chipotle sauce mixture. Then add 1 cup of cooked black beans and 1 cup of corn. I also added a few slices of pickled jalapenos (you can use fresh as well). Mix until all is well combined.
- Next, using a spoon fill the bell peppers with this mixture.
- Then, on the bottom of the baking sheet add the rest of the chipotle sauce. This will provide moisture to the peppers when steaming in the oven.
- Cover the peppers with aluminum paper and cook in the oven for about 20 minutes or until you reach your desired texture for the peppers. I like my peppers to be crunchy so 20 minutes was enough for me.
Nutrition
Calories: 273kcal | Carbohydrates: 50g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 901mg | Potassium: 932mg | Fiber: 11g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 5020IU | Vitamin C: 189mg | Calcium: 48mg | Iron: 4mg