¡Happy Monday, folks – it’s fiesta time!
Judging by your responses in my 2016 Fooduzzi Reader Survey (which you can totally still take in about 5 minutes, btw!), you all want fast and easy plant-based dinner recipes that can easily be converted into tomorrow’s work or school lunch.
Well, folks, here’s the first of many to come.
Mark and I had an awesome weekend. After a week that was long, tiresome, and overall meh, it was so nice taking time to regroup, refresh, and restart. Taking it easy and focusing on the things I love – like Fooduzzi, Mark, our crazy little snuggle bug, and writing – really helped to put things into perspective with me.
Well that, and cooking up two of my all-time favorite Fooduzzi recipes to date!
New mantra: If things don’t go your way, make things go your way. ?
So, dear friend, we’re starting the week in the best way possible: Mexican food. And not just any Mexican food. Vegetarian Mexican Stuffed Peppers. aka. one of the easiest plant-based dinner recipe you’ll ever lay your eyes on!
Step 1: Make stuffing.
Step 2: Stuff peppers with stuffing.
Step 3: Bake stuffed peppers.
Step 4: Devour. ?
Step 5: Pure. Happiness.
The Mexican-inspired filling is the key to this 30-minute meal because it uses ultra-convenient, yet totally healthy, ingredients like leftover cooked brown rice, canned black beans, frozen corn, and jarred salsa! We’ll spice up the mixture with some classic Mexican spices like cumin, chili powder, and dried oregano, and we’ll add a couple of dashes hot sauce for some zing. To make this filling even more addictive, we’ll add a couple tablespoons of hummus. Hummus is one of my all-time fav sneaky vegan ingredients because it adds so much creamy dreamy goodness without adding a lick of dairy! I mean, you can totally add some shredded cheese right on top if you’re so dairy-inclined (Mark did and LOVED it), but you can totally skip it and be a happy camper.
The genius of this recipe, if I do say so myself ?, is that I alwaysalwaysalways have these ingredients on hand! So these Vegetarian Mexican Stuffed Peppers are a great “clean-out-the-refridgerator-and-pantry” kinda meal! If you’re corn-less, feel free to sauté up some onion instead! Don’t have black beans? Chickpeas would be stellar! Doing the whole grain-free thing? Cooked quinoa would be DELICIOUS! You do you, friends – I guarantee it’s gonna be delish!
Mark and I loved these Vegetarian Mexican Stuffed Peppers, and I know that they’ll be added to the weekly dinner rotation because they’re just so easy (and quick!) to make. Not to mention totally customizable. Not to mention healthy, gluten free, and vegan. Not to mention so dang tasty!
Embrace the fiesta! Let’s get cookin’!
PrintVegetarian Mexican Stuffed Peppers
- Yield: 3 peppers, easily doubled
Ingredients
- 3 large bell peppers
- 1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels
- 1 cup cooked brown rice
- 1 cup black beans
- 1/2 tsp. cumin
- 1/2 tsp. chili powder
- 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
- a couple (or more) dashes hot sauce
- salt + pepper
- 2 Tbsp. hummus
- cheese (optional)
- For serving: salsa, fresh cilantro, corn tortilla chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
- Slice the tops off of your bell peppers, remove the seeds and core, and cut a small opening down one of the sides to expose the inside (see photos for example). Dice the pepper chunks you removed to use in the filling.
- Add olive oil to a skillet over medium-high heat and add corn and pepper chunks. Sauté until slightly brown.*
- Remove pan from heat and stir in rice, beans, cumin, chili powder, oregano, hot sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. Once combined, mix in hummus.
- Stuff peppers with filling and bake for about 10 minutes covered with aluminum foil. Remove foil, and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until the peppers are tender. If adding cheese, add it on top in the last 5 minutes of baking.
- Remove peppers from oven and top with salsa and fresh cilantro. Serve with tortilla chips and extra salsa.
Notes
*If you buy frozen fire-roasted corn (Trader Joe’s has it!), you can skip this step!
STUNNING photos!!! I love veggie stuffed peppers— such a great way to use up leftover grains AND they make a great lunch the next day :)
Thank you so much, Liz!! I agree – stuffed peppers are the ultimate easy dinner!
Gorgeous photos, lady love! So so colorful, just looking at ’em makes me happy! And they sound SUPER YUMMY – I love stuffed peppers!
Thank you thank you thank you, Lucia <3
Holy YUM!! I love this recipe idea! And all those Mexican flavours have been heavy on my mind lately so I think this one might be making into my dinner line up this weekend!! Also, I loooooove your new mantra. It is exactly what I need right now!
Thanks so much, Rebecca! If you try it out, let me know!
And I’m glad you like the mantra – it’s seriously getting me through this crazy month!
These look so delicious! I love stuffed peppers for a quick dinner I can use as leftovers. Pictures on POINT too!!
Thanks, Emilie!! <3 And they're so simple, too! THE BEST comfort food!
Am I the only one who made these and the peppers were hard even after cooking them for more than double the time? I’m no cook, my husband usually does the cooking, but he said next time I should parboil the peppers first.
Hi, Karen! Thanks for your feedback. We like our veggies with some crunch after we roast them, but I completely understand if you like them a little more tender! I’ve never tried it, but parboiling your peppers ahead of time might just give your the texture you’re looking for. I’m sorry the dish didn’t turn out as you would have hoped, but I hope the flavors were good!