Nutty Stuffed Peppers

Not every delicious meal is super photogenic. While the filling and sauce in this recipe is a pleasing orangey yellow color, this meal doesn't photograph great. But trust us. The first time I made this meal I thought it was a long shot that anyone would happily eat it, but I thought I'd try it anyway. Before I knew it, everyone was helping themselves to seconds, and it has been a family favorite ever since. You can be pretty flexible about the filling ingredients (the protein, the type of apple, the type of rice, the type of nut butter) and the recipe still comes out well, and if you don't care for peppers, you can scoop out tomatoes or eggplants to stuff instead. 

Coconut oil to coat glass 9x13 inch baking dish
4 large bell peppers - green, yellow, orange, or red
1 pound ground beef, ground turkey, or 2 cups cooked chick peas
1 medium Granny Smith (or other crisp, tart apple) apple, cored and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced or grated
¼ cup chopped shallots
¼ cup fresh curly parsley
1 ½ cups cooked wild rice
1 can coconut milk
2 large tomatoes, diced
¼ cup peanut, almond, cashew or sunflower seed butter
2 teaspoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon curry powder
½ teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons dried basil
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Oil 9x13 glass baking dish.
• If using ground beef or ground turkey, break into small pieces and brown in a pan with 1 tablespoon coconut or olive oil until fully cooked.
• Cut bell peppers in half, remove seeds, and rinse.
• In a food processor, combine apples, garlic, shallots, and parsley. Blend until coarsely chopped. Transfer to a large bowl. Add the wild rice and meat or chick peas and stir to combine.
• In the food processor, combine coconut milk, diced tomatoes, nut butter, maple syrup, curry powder, turmeric, cayenne, salt, pepper and basil. Blend until smooth.
• In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine olive oil, filling mixture and half of the coconut sauce. Simmer for 10 minutes.
• Place the pepper halves in the glass baking dish and put the filling into them. Drizzle with the remaining coconut sauce.
• Cover tightly with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 to 20 minutes or until peppers are tender. Serve hot.

Makes 4 servings
Adapted from 500 Vegan Recipes by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman

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