Who loves a good stuffed pepper? This girl! Especially when the peppers are in season and major on sale! Only way I shop — sales. 🙂
These southwest stuffed bell peppers are stuffed with quinoa (What a power grain!), Black Beans, Corn, Onion, Turkey Sausage and Cheddar Cheese! Yum.
So, to start, heat your oven to 400 degrees. Begin cooking the turkey sausage over medium heat, and while the turkey is cooking, prepare the peppers and chop the onion. For stuffed peppers I like to behead them and then manually tear out the flesh & seeds. (Sounds so violent!) Then, a little trick I picked up was to slice off the points on the end of the peppers so that they stand flat while they’re cooking!
Sort of an aside – Mix 1 cup quinoa with 1 cup water and 1 cup broth (it adds more flavor), and allow this to boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to low, and allow the quinoa to cook for 15 minutes. At the 15 minute mark, I like to leave the pan on the hot burner, and allow to sit for 5 minutes more. This makes the most perfect fluffy quinoa!
And don’t let that top go to waste! Chop off the edible portions, and you can add these together with the onion, and stuff them in the peppers too.
Disclaimer – I only cooked 4 peppers, but had a ton of leftover “stuffing”. 6 peppers will be much more fitting unless you just want to eat the stuffing as-is. Which I sometimes like to do!
So, once your turkey is cooked, Add the chopped pepper & onion. As they are cooking, stir in the spices, and continue to cook until peppers are soft and onions become translucent.
Once all this yumminess is cooked, remove it from the heat, and into a separate mixing bowl. Add the corn, beans, cheese and cooked quinoa to this, and mix until well blended (Promise it’s all hiding down there).
And now you’re ready to stuff those peppers! I use a medium sized spoon, and fill to the brim, gently pressing the stuffing down to fill the entire pepper. You could call them well-stuffed peppers…
Once those peppers are stuffed, put them in the oven for 35 minutes. During the last 5 minutes, add a little cheese and let it brown in the oven.
I garnished with a little extra cheese (yum!), some sliced avocado and my not-so-famous Greek Yogurt + powdered Ranch dressing mixture.
Southwest Stuffed Bell Peppers with Quinoa & Turkey Sausage
Ingredients
- 6 Sweet Red Peppers
- 1 cup quinoa (dry)
- 1 cup water
- 1 lb ground turkey sausage
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 medium onion
- 1 jalapeno (could omit if too spicy!)
- 1 cup cooked black beans
- 1 cup corn, frozen
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp oregano
- salt & pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp cilantro, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Remove tops & seeds from the bell peppers. Slice the edible portion of the tops off, and chop. This will be added to the frying pan later. Slice the bottoms off the peppers, to make them flat so they will stand upright in the glass pan (see photos). But don't cut into the interior of the pepper. Don't want the goodness leaking out!
- Begin cooking ground turkey over medium heat until fully cooked through, and no pink remains.
- While the turkey is cooking. Add 1 cup of dry quinoa with 2 cups of fluid (1 cup water & 1 cup broth). Bring to a boil, and once boiling, reduce the heat to low, and cover. Cook for 15 minutes. At the 15 minute mark, turn the heat off, but leave the pot on the burner, and the lid on. Let steam for 5 minutes more for fluffy quinoa.
- While the turkey is cooking, chop the medium onion, and add to the pan with the cooked turkey.
- Add the seasonings to the turkey and then the chopped jalapeno peppers, tops of the red bell pepper, and onion. Continue cooking until onions are translucent and bell pepper is soft.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the cooked quinoa, and the turkey & vegetable mixture, with 1 cup of shredded cheese.
- Place the hollowed bell pepper in an oven safe dish, and fill each pepper with the grain & meat mixture. Once each pepper is filled, top with additional shredded cheese.
- Cook for 35 minutes or until peppers are tender. Garnish with chopped cilantro for serving.
As always, Enjoy!