Recipe: Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

This is a recipe that I completely made up myself using shelf staples from my cabinet and basics in my refrigerator. I have literally made it for dinner too many times to count and I know it’s a keeper because my (non-vegetarian) husband always wants more!

It’s definitely not your typical stuffed pepper though…it’s main ingredients are rice, diced tomatoes, black beans, and ground mushrooms.
The first time I made it, I randomly thought to add in some chili peppers flakes which was the best decision ever… they give it an addicting spicy kick you will love the taste of in every bite.
Oh, and did I mention that it’s pretty easy to whip up too!
Check out the recipe below.

Ingredients:

• 4 orange peppers
  (I think orange peppers have the most flavor amongst all the other colored peppers,
  but feel free to use red, yellow, and/or green peppers if you so desire)
• 1 – 10 oz. bag of Trader Joe’s Frozen Rice Medley
• 1/4 canned diced tomatoes (including about 1/3rd of the juice)
• 1 – 15 oz. can of black beans
• 1/2 cup ground mushrooms – I used my mini processor to achieve this consistency
  but you can always just finely chop the shrooms yourself
• 1 tsp. red chilli pepper flakes
• 2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. salt
• shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Cut the tops off of the peppers and remove the ribs and seeds.
3. Put the frozen TJ’s rice in the microwave for 3 minutes, following the package directions.
4. In a big bowl, combine and mix the rice, black beans, diced tomatoes, ground mushrooms, red chilli pepper flakes, oregano and salt.
5. Spoon a little bit of the mixture into first pepper, then sprinkle the cheese over it, then spoon a little more of the mixture into the pepper. Do not top with cheese again.
   
6. Repeat step 5 with the 3 other peppers you are going to serve.
7. Put peppers into a loaf pan (I’ve found this to be the best way to cook them but you may have to use two pans) and bake in oven for 40 minutes or until peppers have softened.
8. At this point, take the stuffed peppers out of the oven and now, top each pepper with another sprinkle of cheese.  Put them back in the oven for 3-5 minutes.
9. Heat the the extra diced tomatoes from the can in the microwave for 20 seconds.  Use to top off the peppers before serving!!