Mexican Stuffed Peppers w/Quinoa & Black Beans

I've had a pretty good crop of peppers so far (and they are still coming in strong). I use them in canning salsa & also in my homemade spaghetti sauce, that is if I can get to them before the kids eat them up. Yes, they love sliced peppers dipped in ranch dressing along with dicing them up for homemade supreme pizza or stromboli. The other day I was making a batch of stuffed shells (I'll share that recipe & pics another day) and had a hankering for stuffed peppers. I was going to just use the same filling but then I decided to do some browsing of other ideas and came up with Mexican Stuffed Peppers! They were amazing paired with a homemade enchilada sauce. And you can't go wrong with a filling of the healthy quinoa & black beans. If you've never read up on quinoa, I'd encourage you to check it out. It's incredibly versatile & so much better for you than pasta or rice.

(I'm working on figuring out how to conform my recipes to make them printable size for you all. Haven't figure it out yet but if you know how to do this, shoot me an email!)

• 4 bell peppers (any color), sliced in half stem-to-tip, seeds removed
• 1c quinoa, uncooked
• ½ medium onion, diced
• 1 (15oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 roma tomato, seeded and diced
• 1 (4oz) can diced green chiles (don’t drain)
• ¼c cilantro, minced
• ¼tsp salt
• ¼tsp pepper
• olive oil, if desired
• ½c Monterrey Jack, grated
• ½c cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 recipe red enchilada sauce (or 1 (28oz) can)

1. Add quinoa and onion to a large saucepan with 2 cups of water and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil 5 minutes, cover, turn off heat and let steam 15 minutes. Fluff with a fork. ( I actually only used 1/2 cup of quinoa & 1 cup of water. I had a little bit of cooked ground turkey to also add to this)
2. In the meantime, microwave pepper halves 2-3 minutes to soften slightly. (Prepared this way, the peppers should come out crisp-tender. If you want them crisper, you can omit this step.)
3. Pour quinoa/onion mixture into a mixing bowl. Stir in black beans, tomato, green chiles and their juices (I used jalapenos from my garden in place of this), cilantro, ¼ tsp salt, and ¼ tsp pepper. If the mixture seems to dry, drizzle in a bit of olive oil (I didn’t need any).
4. Pour enchilada sauce into a 9×13″ baking dish. Divide filling among peppers. Nestle stuffed peppers into the enchilada sauce. Sprinkle with cheeses.
5. Cover the pan with foil and bake at 375 degrees 25-30 minutes. Remove foil and cook about 5 minutes longer. Serve peppers drizzled with enchilada sauce.

Red Enchilada Sauce

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 1 Tbsp chili powder
• ½-1 canned chipotle chili (packed in adobo), rinsed and minced (oh how I love this!)
• ½tsp cumin
• ¼tsp garlic powder
• ¼tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 (8oz) can tomato sauce
• 2c water

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and chili powder. Cook 2-3 minutes, stirring often. Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine.
2. Bring sauce to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Simmer about 10 minutes.
3. Makes about 3¼c sauce.

(sorry for the annoying watermarks on my photos but sadly I've discovered this last year that people are stealing my photos without permission unfortunately.) I don't mind sharing but please ask first.

The darkest night is often the bridge to the brightest tomorrow.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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