Sunday, June 21, 2020

Peppers And Tomatoes Stuffed With Quinoa And Chorizo

I have been intrigued by the idea of stuffed peppers for a long time.  My mother's side of the family immigrated from Eastern Europe two generations ago and stuffed peppers are a favorite in those cultures. I thought the idea of using something hearty and healthy to stuff peppers with sounded like a great idea, but I thought I could put my own spin on it.  I have seen various quinoa stuffed veggies over the years and that seemed like a good start. After some further thought, I decided to use cooked chorizo as the meat in the dish.  Admittedly the sausage makes the dish way less healthy but I do feel less guilty since quinoa rocks as a superfood.  I do have to be honest I made the food more for taste than nutrition but there is at least some nutrition to it with the vegetables, the quinoa and the chia seed.

But that was not the only way I experimented with the dish. While discussing this idea with my wife, she suggested adding a poblano chili to the stuffing and I thought that was an excellent idea. Then, to round out the flavors, we added some chopped onion.  Finally, since my wife is not fond of cooked peppers, we stuffed some tomatoes to suit her tastes. The final dish was as follows:

1 small sweet onion chopped
1 pound chorizo
1 poblano, seeded and chopped
1 cup quinoa, cooked according to directions
About 1 tablespoon of chia seed(Available from Costco)

Peppers and tomatoes, tops cut off and centers cleaned for stuffing

Oven was preheated to 350 degrees.

The chorizo and onion were sauteed together, until the chorizo was cooked through. The chopped poblano was then added and cooked for a few moments. Finally, the cooked quinoa was added, along with chia.  The filling was mixed together and then the vegetables were stuffed.

The stuffed vegetables were placed in the oven and cooked until the tops were browned a bit, about 20 minutes. (Please feel free to cook these to your preference).

Aside from being good eats, I thought the results were attractive:



This was definitely a success and I highly recommend experimenting with stuffed peppers and tomatoes.

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