If you’re looking for a fabulous vegetarian entree, look no further. This was the first time I cooked with quinoa and was quite surprised with how much I liked it. It definitely had an interesting texture but I’m looking forward to using it in this dish as well as others soon. All of the ingredients blended very well together. I enjoyed it just the way it is but my husband thought it needed some meat in it. It would be wonderful either way.
I recently joined Weight Watchers so I’m always in need of healthy and delicious dishes and this definitely fit the bill. I calculated these peppers around 6ish WW points per half since the only items that counted as points were the quinoa, black beans, enchilada sauce, and the cheese. Not too shabby.
Mexican Stuffed Peppers with Quinoa & Black Beans
Ingredients
- 4 bell peppers any color, sliced in half stem-to-tip, seeds removed
- 1 cup quinoa uncooked
- 1/2 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)
- 1/4 cup cilantro minced
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- Olive oil if desired
- 1/2 cup Monterrey Jack grated
- 1/2 cup cheddar cheese grated
- 1 28 oz can red enchilada sauce
Instructions
- 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.
- 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.)
- Pour quinoa/onion mixture into a mixing bowl. Stir in black beans, tomato, green chiles and their juices, cilantro, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper. If the mixture seems to dry, drizzle in a bit of olive oil.
- Pour enchilada sauce into a 9×13″ baking dish. Divide filling among peppers. Nestle stuffed peppers into the enchilada sauce. Sprinkle with cheeses.
- 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.
