Vegan Stuffed Peppers

I have only made stuffed peppers one other time and it was with tofu, broccoli, rice and cream of mushrooms soup…good, but not vegan. This time I wanted to add some good spices and try the mexi route-these turned out great and had some yummy leftovers.

Start off with the brown rice. Rice takes a long time, even if it is quick cooking. First up on the chopping board were the onion then 4 stalks of celery. Into the skillet drop the onion and celery. While those were softening I chopped up the green onions and dropped those in also. I also defrosted the cauliflower while the chopping was going on. I then chopped up the mushrooms, zucchini and then the cauliflower and dropped each in the skillet.

After all the veggies were softened and the seasonings were added, I added the Light Life ground soy meat and stirred that to combine with all the veggies. Then I added all the diced tomatoes. I love the flavor of fire roasted tomatoes and the heat they add to every dish. You don’t even need a red pepper flake in a dish if you are adding fire roasted tomatoes. After the tomatoes are in, let the whole thing simmer away for about 10-15 minutes. You want all the flavors to be combined.

While all the simmering is going on, cut the tops off the peppers and and clean out the innards. Pour a small amount of olive oil on the bottom of a baking dish. Place peppers in the dish; if the peppers won’t stand up, cut a tiny bit off the bottom to make them stay upright during baking. After cooking all the stuffing, use a large spoon to stuff the peppers. Depending on the size of your peppers, you can get about a cup of stuffing in each. Once again, I had a ton of left overs. I put about a 1/2 cup at the bottom of each dish then froze the rest.

Vegan Stuffed Peppers

1 C Dry Brown Rice

1 Small Onion, chopped

1 Tbsp Minced Garlic

1 Tsp Black Pepper

4 Stalks Celery, chopped

4 Stalks Green Onion, chopped

16 Oz Sliced Mushrooms, chopped

1 Medium Zucchini, chopped

1 Tsp Cumin

1 Tsp Red Pepper Flakes

1/2 Tsp Paprika

1 Pkg Cauliflower, defrosted and chopped

1 Pkg Light Life Original Ground Soy Meat

1 Can Mexican Style Diced Tomatoes

2 Cans Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes

6 Green Peppers

1. Follow directions on back of the rice box.

2. Heat 1 tsp olive oil in skillet. Chop onion and drop in oil. Add garlic and pepper to onions.

3. Chop and add the following to the onions to soften and cook together. Celery, green onions, mushrooms, zucchini.

4. While chopping and dropping, defrost the cauliflower. Cauliflower does not need to be heated through, it just needs to be soft enough to chop up.

5. Add cauliflower then cumin and paprika.

6. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

7. Add soy meat and combine with veggies. Add diced tomatoes and combine. Let simmer together for 10-15 minutes.

8. Cut tops off peppers and scrape out the insides. If needed slice the bottoms evenly so they stand. Add a small amount of olive oil to baking dish and stand up peppers.

9. Fill peppers with stuffing-squish down and add until a little over stuffed.

10. Bake peppers about 35 minutes. The peppers should be soft and able to cut through easily.

11. Add a 1/2 cup stuffing to bottom of dish. Place one pepper per dish. Freeze leftovers.

12. Enjoy!