Sunday, April 27, 2014

{ STUFFED RED PEPPERS }



I used several different recipes from Pinterest to create my own recipe for Stuffed Red Peppers.  They're super tasty!  I love them, but my family doesn't love the red pepper part of them so I usually just bake some of the filling by itself in a glass pan and they just eat it plain.  I've also made a big pan of just the filling and then used it on salads with sliced avocados and vegan ranch dressing.

Ingredients:

4-6* red peppers, halved and seeds removed

1 c. chopped onions
1 T. taco seasoning
1 cup frozen corn
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 c. chopped cilantro
juice of one lime
1 1/2 -2 c. mango peach salsa
1 c. cooked brown rice
1 c. cooked quinoa (I use a mixture of red and white)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roast the pepper halves in a baking dish for 20-25 minutes until cooked through.  Meanwhile, saute the onions and the taco seasoning in a little bit of water until the onions are translucent.  Add the corn, black beans, cilantro, and lime juice.  Stir in the salsa, brown rice, and quinoa.  Spoon the filling into the red pepper halves and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes.  Serve with sliced avocados and vegan sour cream or ranch.

*When I use four peppers, I have leftover filling and I bake it separately in it's own pan and either eat it plain or serve it on salads.  If I use six peppers, it uses all of the filling.

{ CAULIFLOWER ALFREDO SAUCE }


A friend of mine mentioned making a Cauliflower Alfredo sauce that sounded really good to me, so I decided to try and make a vegan version. It's delicious! I like to serve it on spaghetti squash with sauteed mushrooms, but it's also very good just on whole wheat pasta.

Ingredients:

3 c. vegetable broth 
1 head cauliflower 
1/4 c. vegetable broth 
1/4 t. crushed red pepper 
1 t. Italian seasoning 
2 cloves garlic, minced 
1/2 c. cashews 
1/4 to 1/2 c. nutritional yeast 
freshly ground salt and pepper, to taste (I use a lot)

Directions:

Roughly chop the head of cauliflower and bring it to a boil in the 3 c. of vegetable broth. Turn down to medium heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, until tender. While the cauliflower is boiling, saute the crushed red pepper, Italian seasoning, and garlic in the 1/4 c. vegetable broth until fragrant. When the cauliflower is tender, add it to the blender with about 1 1/2 c. of the broth it was boiled in. Add the seasoning mixture, the cashews, and the nutritional yeast and blend. Season with salt and pepper (I use my salt and pepper grinders and just do it to taste, but it's probably at least one teaspoon of salt and a half teaspoon of pepper). Use the remaining broth you boiled the cauliflower in to thin the sauce to the desired consistency.