A Cooked Vegan Meal

This was a vegan dinner we cooked up tonight. It was filling, nutritious, low-fat, and high fiber. Plus it is quick and easy to make, and everyone loved it. Even our toddler, which is always nice. (It's nice to avoid persuading when it comes to dinner time.) 

Bell Peppers (we used 3)

Rice or another whole grain (I used about 1 1/2 cups dry)

1 onion

1-2 cloves garlic

chopped parsley

1 can crushed tomatoes (I used a 28 oz can of Muir Glen Fire Roasted Crushed- this stuff has the BEST flavor)

salt

pepper

coconut oil

olive oil

2 tablespoons capers

Boil up some rice (we used Basmati rice- Chris thought the flavor would be nice. We also had wild rice, quinoa, farro, and barley, and any of those would have worked, too. Experiment with your whole grains!)

While it boils, cut the tops off some red peppers and cleaned out the seeds, and then put the peppers aside. 

Saute chopped garlic and onion in coconut oil on medium. When it is golden and a bit translucent, add the tomatoes, parsley and capers. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Once it bubbles a bit, turn it down to low. At this point the rice is cooked tender, so drain it off and put it back in its pot. Spoon half the tomato sauce into the rice, and leave the rest of the sauce in its pot. Place the hollowed out peppers (without tops) into the pot, nestled in the sauce. Spoon the rice mix into the peppers, filling to the brim, and cap them off with the pepper tops. Drizzle with olive oil. Cover the pot and cook on medium until the peppers are fork tender. (This took a half hour for us, but it might depend on your pot, stove, etc. 

Stuffed peppers are often stuffed with ground beef, which we don't eat. But even if you do eat meat and you want to have a meatless meal, I doubt you would miss it with this dish. It is super filling, and since it has little fat and lots of fiber you can feel guilt free about having seconds! And it is a CHEAP meal!

I kept the stuffing VERY simple here, but I think next time I will bulk it up with some more veggies and play around with spices. I think mushrooms and/or zucchini would be great. I also think spices like coriander or cumin would work well. 

Does anyone out there make stuffed peppers? What's your recipe?