Quinoa Vegan Stuffed Peppers

There is something about baked and stuffed sweet bell peppers that is extra delicious. In my home growing up, stuffed peppers were a dish that showed up on our dinner table about twice a month, usually accompanied by mashed potatoes. 

My mother stuffed her peppers with ground beef and rice that were  cooked in a tomato sauce. My colorful stuffed peppers are strictly vegan. ( I sometimes use the same stuffing and stuff tomatoes too)

In the past I've made these tasty lemony Greek stuffed peppers  (link to recipe) using brown rice, tomatoes, spices, and pine nuts. It is one of my favorites. 

This time I decided to make a simple recipe using a mixture of quinoa, cauliflower rice, tofu and seasoning. 

I like to soften the peppers by lightly steaming them before stuffing and cooking them. 

Ingredients: 

4 bell peppers (red or yellow) 

1 cup of water to steam the peppers

2 cups of dry white quinoa, cooked 

2 cups of riced cauliflower, cooked

4 ounces of firm tofu, diced

optional: 1/4 cup of sliced black olives

1 cup of vegetable broth, divided

Salt (to taste)

Cracked black pepper (to taste)

1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder 

Directions: 

Cut the tops off of each pepper (to make a lid) and clean out the seeds of the pepper. In a large rimmed skillet, add the peppers and 1 cup of water, cover, and allow the peppers to steam for about 5-8 minutes and soften up somewhat and remove from the skillet set aside (you can see I burned mine). 

Use the same skillet to make the cauliflower rice and add the cooked quinoa and tofu. Cook the mixture adding vegetable as needed to prevent burning. When the frozen cauliflower rice is fully cooked, about 5 minutes, stir mixture well and use to stuff the peppers. 

Stuff each pepper with the stuffing, return the stuffed peppers to the skillet, add remainder of vegetable broth to the skillet (or add 1 cup of broth) cover and cook for about 5 minutes.