Stuffed Peppers with Spinach, Quinoa, Chickpeas and Feta

By Lori Bosworth

With Toronto and the rest of the country for that matter recently experiencing extremely cold temperatures during the end of December and early January, many of us have not wanted to venture outdoors. Let’s hope the rest of the winter is not as brutal. But staying indoors meant shifting focus on to other activities, such as cooking. It’s a great time to try out your new Instant Pot, slow cooker or blender that you received over the holidays, or experiment with new recipes to introduce into your meal rotation. Perhaps you have committed to becoming vegetarian or vegan in 2018? Although I still eat meat often, I am choosing to enjoy several meatless days during the week. On that note, I was eager to prepare a vegetarian version of Stuffed Peppers. This Stuffed Peppers with Spinach, Quinoa, Chickpeas and Feta recipe is packed full of protein and it’s also gluten-free. If you want to make it vegan, just omit the feta cheese.

In order to get the peppers soft without overcooking the peppers’ stuffing, I baked the peppers at 450°F for 20 minutes to get them soft.

I then stuffed them with the spinach feta chickpeas mixture and baked them at 375°F for another 15 minutes. Baking the peppers for at least 30 minutes really brings out their sweet and savoury flavour. I also used frozen spinach in this recipe because fresh spinach was not available in my grocery store. Although I squeezed a lot of the water out of the spinach before using it, there was still a fair amount of water in the spinach, which kept the spinach, chickpeas, feta, quinoa, mushroom mixture moist.

Let me know in the comments whether you make Stuffed Peppers with Spinach, Quinoa, Chickpeas and Feta and what you think of it. Bon Appetit!

If you like quinoa, check out our Beet, Quinoa, Feta and Avocado Salad.

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Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed Peppers with Spinach, Quinoa, Chickpeas, Feta Cheese and Mushrooms makes a great vegetarian meal.

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Prep Time 45 mins

Cook Time 40 mins

Total Time 1 hr 25 mins

Course Main Dish

Cuisine Vegetarian

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

  

• 7 Tablespoons olive oil
• 4 bell peppers I used orange and yellow bell peppers.
• 1/2 cup quinoa cooked
• 1 package (8 oz.) white mushrooms sliced
• 1 can (19 fl. oz.) chickpeas rinsed and drained
• 125 grams feta cheese diced
• 250 grams frozen spinach thawed and squeezed
• 1/2 onion diced
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 2 teaspoons cumin ground

Instructions

 

• Remove the tops off the peppers with a knife, clean out the seeds and membranes.
• In a saucepan on medium high heat, saute the mushrooms in 3 Tablespoons of olive oil for 3 minutes, then remove to mixing bowl.
• Heat oven to 450°F.
• Add 2 Tablespoons of olive oil to saucepan, then saute cumin for 1 minute over medium high heat. Add onion and saute for 2 minutes, then add garlic and saute for 1 minute, adding more olive oil as required. Remove to mixing bowl.
• Saute the spinach for 2 minutes, then remove to mixing bowl.
• Brush outside of peppers with olive oil and place with tops down in baking pan lined with parchment paper. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, then turn oven down to 375°F.
  
• Add quinoa, feta cheese and chickpeas to mixing bowl and combine with mushrooms, onions, garlic and spinach.
  
• Place peppers in a baking dish lined with parchment paper and stuff peppers with quinoa, feta cheese, chickpeas, mushrooms, onions, garlic and spinach mixture. Bake for 15-17 minutes and serve.