Ingredients:
4 red bell peppers
1 tablespoon plus more olive oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup quinoa (or cooked rice)
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika (or chipolte chili spice)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 ears of corn shucked (or one cup frozen corn thawed)
1 cup cherry tomatoes (diced into thirds)
1 15 oz. can black beans rinsed and drained
1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
5 ounces extra sharp cheddar cheese
5 ounces Monterey Jack cheese
(1 1/4 cups divided)
Hot sauce
1/4 cup salted roasted pumpkin seeds
Lime wedges for serving
Serves 4, Calories 440 each half, Protein 21g, Carbs 50g, Fat 20g, Fiber 9g
Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Steps:
Halve the pepper lengthwise through the stem then gently scoop out the ribs and seeds with a knife. Not cutting away the cap gives you a bigger surface for the filling. Rub with a tablespoon of olive oil then season both sides with salt and pepper. Arrange cut side down on the parchment lined baking sheet.
Put pan in middle section of oven and roast under tender and beginning to char, 15 to 20 minutes. Keep the oven on once pan is removed.
In a medium pot, add in your cooked grain (quinoa, rice, etc.) and add sauteed vegetables, then add drained black beans, cilantro, corn and spices. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese mixtures and add a dash or two of some variants of hot sauce and perhaps a little more salt and pepper.
Prepare a Pyrex or ceramic baking dish (I cut the recipe in half and used an 8x8 Pyrex), put the roasted peppers cut side up and gently add in the medley filing, adding any extra around the edges in a spray oil pan, add the last of the cheese mix across the top and bake further for 10-30 minutes, watching throughout.
Top with roasted pumpkin seeds, add more cilantro if desired and serve with lime wedges and more hot sauce, each pepper half over a bed of quinoa or rice.
Notes:
I didn't use quinoa as I don't care for the texture. I used Hispanic yellow rice I had cooked separately, but you could use many grains including farro, or flavored rices--all but wild. Avocado flavored rice would also be good, or an herbal blend of basmati rice, or brown rice or packaged Spanish rice. Trader Joe's also does a nice frozen Spanish rice.
I thought overall the dish came out rather bland, but I was out of smoked paprika and used a chipotle chili powder, regular chili powder and I skipped the cumin due to all of the assembling. I would almost say do not miss the cumin. The dish needs an extra boost.
I used sharp cheddar and an Irish Monterey Jack blend. I'm wondering if it needs to be extra sharp cheddar. The recipe also called for Pepper Jack as an option, but overall, I think Pepper Jack cheese is heavy-handed, and then you have it left over which I wouldn't want.
I only had frozen cream corn from Trader Joe's, which was fine, but I would have preferred fresh shucked (seasonal) or Trader Joe's frozen charred sweet corn. I also diced up a stalk of celery for added texture.
I also pressed 1 1/2 cloves of fresh garlic rather than garlic powder, and the flavor was too pronounced. Go with the powder.
The original recipe didn't call for tomatoes. I added them in and they gave a nice taste, texture and color.
In assembling the burrito filing blended into the pepper halves, I layered the cheese putting some on the bottom, then the blend which already had cheeses in it, plus more cheese blend on top. I still wish the flavor had been more pronounced.
I did not have pumpkin seeds, and I think that would have made a nice finishing touch to the dish.
One thing I would point out: there are a lot of steps and prep work in this recipe, so don't enter making it when you are tired (I was,) or not in the right mindset to do all of the dicing and grating, etc. that is required. Loading the pepper shells and baking them is the easy part. It says the prep time is a total of 50 minutes, 20 in prep and 30 in baking overall (the peppers being roasted, then the heating of the final assembly.) Getting everything together, the careful dicing away of pepper ribs, then the overall cook times, I would guess the true time factor would be more 60-70 minutes, maybe even more, so enter it with warning.
I did save this recipe because I was looking for good vegetable-based protein dinners. I think with some tweaking, it could become part of my normal repetoire.
