Gluten Free Stuffed Peppers

Gluten Free Stuffed Peppers

One of the worst/best things about cottaging is all the cooking one has to do. On the one hand it is a never ending production line, on the other hand, what’s better than sharing a meal with friends and family? In order to ease the pain of all that cooking, I mandate that anyone who comes up has to put on at least one meal. I love other people’s cooking, and not just because I’m not the one at the helm. People generally trot out something they are quite good at (a cottage is no place for experimentation) and I like learning a few new tricks. As of this summer, I’ve added Ceri’s succotash and my brother’s stuffed peppers to my permanent rotation.

stuffedpeppers4

I’m back in the city and I’ve already made my brother’s peppers. I took them to my book club, which is now actually my test kitchen, and they gave the dish a resounding thumbs up. As per usual, I like meals that are more guide than recipe. My brother used basmati rice, I used quinoa. He used bread crumbs to bind the ingredients, I used chia. (Yes, I ate the bread crumbs, so shoot me) Once you’ve made these, I promise, you’ll be plotting all the different insides you can do. If you’re already a peppers stuffer, let me know how you fill them. I’m addicted!

In addition to these being delicious, gluten free and quite a pretty little dish, it’s a great meal to have the kids help out with. They’ll enjoy filling the peppers and putting the lids on if they’re small and if you have older kids, it might be a good recipe for them to make start to finish. No matter their ages you can always get their input on what they’d like to see in the peppers next time.

Gluten Free Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

  • 1 Lb lean ground beef
  • 1 cup cooked quinoa
  • ½ Spanish onion chopped finely
  • 10 – 15 basil leaves chopped
  • ½ to 1 full tin of diced tomatoes strained or 2 fresh tomatoes chopped
  • ¾ cup feta cheese, crumbled
  • 1 TBSP chia seeds
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 4 – 6 peppers green, yellow, red or orange

Method

Preheat oven to 350

Start by getting the quinoa going.

Follow the package instructions. I made a cup of uncooked quinoa and had a little left over to throw on salads.

If you are using tinned diced tomatoes, place in a strainer over a bowl to remove most of the liquid.

While the quinoa is cooking, chop the onion finely and sauté in a frying pan with a little olive oil until translucent.

Remove onion from the pan and brown the ground beef in the onion pan.

Once the beef is fully browned, add the onion back to the pan, along with the chopped basil, diced tomatoes, crumbled feta and chia.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Feta is quite salty and often tinned tomatoes have high sodium content, so taste before adding the salt, you may find that it needs very little.

If there’s liquid from the tomatoes, you may have to cook it off, otherwise you’re ready to stuff.

Cut the tops of the peppers.

It is nice to have the stem for presentation, so I suggest taking a paring knife and slicing around the tops then twisting the top of rather than slicing right through which can loosen the stem.

You’ll want to clean the pepper of all the seeds and white flesh.

If you can’t find peppers with flat bottoms, simply cut the point off the bottom so that they rest flat on a baking dish.

Stuff your peppers! Place the tops back on and bake for 45 minutes.

Though I haven’t tried this, I have it on good authority from one of my book club girls that stuffed peppers freeze really well. How great is that?

 

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