Quinoa Stuffed Mini Roasted Peppers – Deli Week

Mini peppers are perfect stuffed then roasted as part of a deli board!

This is my last Deli week post before I start thinking about Easter food! Having lots of little things to pick at is one of my favourite ways to eat, I promise that if you put paprika and oregano polenta chips, lemon and chives goats cheese boats and these lovely little stuffed peppers on a board ‘deli style’ your guests will be very happy!! 🙂

I love roasted peppers, letting them get slightly chargrilled brings out a delicious sweetness, and when I found these cute little mini peppers in the supermarket I knew I had to include them this week. If you can’t find mini ones then just use regular peppers and serve them cut in half. It will still taste as delicious.

The flavourings to be mixed with cooked quinoa

The filling is made from cooked quinoa (feel free to use rice or cous cous, what ever you have in your cupboard), mushrooms, red onion, parsley, mint and tonnes of garlic! I love garlic so this time I used 4 cloves (probably equivalent to 2 really fat cloves). Mushrooms and garlic are a match made in heaven so don’t skimp on either of these.

I was tempted to add my current favourite sundried tomatoes and capers but these can be quite strong and I have used them ALOT recently so I decided to go with my other favourites, mushroom and red onion. The result is subtle but delicious, kind of rustic!

Mini peppers stuffed and ready to be roasted!

Makes 12 mini peppers or 4 large peppers

Vegan, Gluten and Wheat free, Low fat

70g uncooked quinoa
1 red onion
4 cloves garlic (or 2 fat ones)
1 tspn dried mixed herbs
6-8 closed cup mushrooms
Pinch Chilli flakes
Bunch fresh parsley
Bunch fresh mint (leaves only)
Salt and pepper
12 mini peppers or 4 large ones
Olive oil for frying

First off put the quinoa in a sauce pan, cover with boiling water and cook on a medium heat for around 12 minutes until soft. Drain and put to one side.

Meanwhile peel then finely chop the red onion and garlic and put in a frying pan with a little olive oil, cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes until they are starting to soften. Add the dried herbs and a good pinch of salt and pepper.

Roughly chop the mushrooms and add them to the pan with the chilli flakes and cook for a further 5-6 minutes to release the liquid from the mushrooms. Finally roughly chop the parsley and mint and add to the pan then mix everything together with the cooked quinoa.

Preheat the oven to 190c. To prepare the peppers cut the top off (do not throw away) and scoop out the seeds and white pith. Spoon the quinoa mix into the peppers and lay on a baking tray, coat in a small amount of oil and then roast in the oven for 15-20 minutes. I did mine for 20 minutes and as you can see they just started to char so make sure you check on them after 15 minutes to check they don’t blacken completely.

Soft, sweet and delicious mixed with quinoa, onion, garlic, herbs and mushrooms!

It’s only when adding tags to my posts when I think “oh yes this is vegan AND gluten free”, when making a recipe I concentrate mostly on the flavours and secondly on the appearance and nearly 90% of the time I realise I have naturally created a vegan friendly recipe. Even though I am not vegan I enjoy natural plant based flavours so much and you feel even better after eating them! I could eat loads of these stuffed peppers and why not? 🙂