Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Made these last night for dinner. Super yummy!!!

I should be posting this to our poor neglected cooking blog. But I can’t remember how. It’s been that long since I posted anything there. So I’ll write this up here and get Dom to remind me how to repost it over there later.

Olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
8 oz crimini mushrooms
1-2 Tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp Ras al Hanout spice blend (Optional but really good I keep this on hand for everything. See bottom of this page for recipe)
10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes, drained, liquid reserved
1 15 oz can of black beans, rinsed and drained
3/4 cup quinoa, rinsed
2 medium carrots, grated
1 jalapeno, diced
1 1/2 c chicken stock
1-2 c pepper jack cheese, grated, divided
3-4 large red bell peppers, halved lengthwise, ribs and seeds removed

Saute onion in olive oil until soft. Add mushrooms and saute until they have given up their juices and are turning brown. Add cumin and Ras al Hanout and saute about 1 min. Stir in spinach and drained tomatoes. Cook about 5 minutes or until all the liquid has cooked off. Stir in black beans, quinoa, carrots, jalapeno, and broth.

Cover, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, simmer 20 minutes or until quinoa is tender.  Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350. Pour reserved liquid from tomatoes into bottom of baking dish.  When quinoa mixture is done, stir in 1/2 the cheese. Fill each pepper half with quinoa mixture and place in baking dish.

Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour. Uncover, sprinkle each pepper with remaining cheese and bake 15 minutes more, until tops are browned. Let stand 5 minutes, drizzle each with pan juices before serving.

Adapted from this recipe