Stuffed peppers

Ok, I had to share a recipe for dinner I had today, as it was just too darn good. On a whim, I bought a box of quinoa at TJoes a few weeks back. Now I have never had quinoa before, but I keep seeing this ancient grain mentioned in healthier recipes that I've come across in the magazines I read, so I thought it was time to give it a go.




I wasn't sure how it was going to taste, but when I came across this recipe, I suddenly had an idea of incorporating the grain with some turkey meat to make a meat-loafy stuffed pepper that I usually make with ground beef. Well, the dinner was a hit with Bear and I that I thought I'd share it with all of you. So if you have never had quinoa before, it made for a great mixture with the turkey and kept it moist. We had half a pepper each along with a nice salad of organic greens with fresh tomatoes and cukes - yum!



I can now safely venture into the recipes that makes quinoa the main staple of a dish after cooking it up with something that was familiar to me. So if you're unsure about trying quinoa, try mixing it with something familiar to test the waters like I did.

As you can see above, I cut and stuff my peppers vertically into a shallow "bowl" shape rather than the cut tops in a deeper "cup" shape that you usually see with stuffed peppers. I prefer them this way because it cooks the ground meat mixture more evenly. Plus, this was the way my mom did it, and so shall I :)

Stuffed peppers with quinoa and ground turkey


(adapted from Taste of Home magazine recipe)



1 and 1/4 cup water (recipe called to cook quinoa in vegetable broth, but I didn't have any chicken or veggie stock, so I just cooked it in water)

1 bay leaf

1/2 cup of quinoa, rinsed

2 bell peppers, halved vertically (bowl shape, not cup shape)

1/2 lb ground turkey

1 large egg, lightly whisked with fork

a couple dashes of Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tbsp dijon mustard

1 tbsp ketchup (plus more for topping)

1 cup onion, finely chopped

1 /2 to 1 tbsp canola or olive oil

2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped

1/2 tsp salt

ground pepper to your liking

1/4 tsp each of dried basil, oregano, paprika

1/8 tsp each of dried marjoram, thyme

dash of cayenne pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In small saucepan, bring broth (or water) and bay leaf to a boil. Add quinoa, reduce heat and cook uncovered for 15-20mins. or until all liquid absorbed and remove from heat. Discard bay leaf, add all the dry seasonings to quinoa and set aside.

In a small pan, saute onions in oil until translucent. In the meantime, take out ground turkey and place into large mixing bowl. Add the gently whisked egg, chopped parsley and wet condiments to bowl. Transfer onion mixture and cooked quinoa to bowl and gently mix together with spoon until incorporated - do not overmix.

Rinse and cut 2 bell peppers vertically and lay into glass casserole dish. Spoon meat and quinoa mixture into pepper halves. Top each half with a few squirts of ketchup and spread to cover the tops. Bake uncovered for 45-55 minutes or until meat mixture comes to a temperature of 165-170 degrees.

Serve and enjoy! If anyone has any great recipes using quinoa, I'd love to hear from you.