Description
This easy dinner reheats like a dream and makes a great freezer meal. Try it with the homemade enchilada sauce! (Gluten Free & Vegan)
PS – Don’t need this many servings? You can easily halve the recipe! Just use 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa and halve the rest of the ingredients!
Ingredients
- 4 bell peppers (any color), sliced in half stem-to-tip, seeds removed
- 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
- 1/4tsp salt
- 1/4tsp pepper
- 1–2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 (15oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1/2 medium red onion, finely diced
- 1/2 cup diced Roma or grape tomatoes
- 1 (4oz) can mild green chiles (don’t drain)
- 1/4c cilantro, minced
- 1 recipe red enchilada sauce (or 1 (28oz) can)*
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Cook quinoa according to package directions. Stir in salt, pepper, lime juice, and olive oil.
Stir in black beans, red onion, tomato, green chiles, and cilantro. Stir until well combined.
Pour enchilada sauce into the bottom of a 9×13″ baking dish. Place pepper halves cut side up in the pan on top of the enchilada sauce. Scoop quinoa filling into the bell pepper halves.
Cover the pan with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 40-45 minutes, or until peppers are tender. (See notes for how you can speed up the bake time!)
Serve peppers drizzled with enchilada sauce.
Notes
SPEED THINGS ALONG – If you want to speed the baking process along, you can pre-cook your peppers a bit. You can microwave them (seeded and halved) for a minute or two to soften, steam them for 1-2 minutes, or blanch them in boiling water for about a minute. If you pre-cook your peppers a bit, you’ll really only need about 20-25 minutes in the oven.
MIX THINGS UP – I love using flavored olive oils to give these an added boost–Mexican Lime, or even a bit of Jalapeño olive oil are really nice here, too! Or, you can switch up the filling, by mixing in some grilled corn, sliced black olives, or even some grilled chicken or taco-spiced turkey/ground beef (obviously the meat options are no longer vegan). You could also top these with shredded cheese if you’re not dairy free/vegan.
FREEZER INSTRUCTIONS – To freeze these, you’ll want to put your assembled peppers in a freezer-safe baking dish (ceramic, glass, metal, or heavy-duty foil) and cover the baking dish with a layer of plastic wrap, then foil for extra insulation. You can bake them straight from frozen (add your enchilada sauce before freezing or right before baking–your choice!). Just follow the regular baking instructions and they should be ready to go! Just don’t forget to remove the plastic wrap before re-heating!!!
TOPPINGS – You can enjoy these as is with some enchilada sauce drizzled on top, or you can kick things up a notch with some guacamole, citrus avocado dip, or sliced avocado. Non-vegans folks can also easily do a dollop of sour cream or a sprinkle of cheese.
Nutrition
- Calories: 149kcal
- Sugar: 3g
- Sodium: 207mg
- Fat: 3g
- Saturated Fat: 0g
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 25g
- Fiber: 7g
- Protein: 6g
- Cholesterol: 0