Veggie Stuffed Pepper Cups
Veggie Stuffed Pepper Cups are fun way to incorporate loads of fresh flavors in a delicious side dish. The peppers serve as holders for all your favorite summer veggies. We like to load them up with sauteed spinach, mushrooms, onions, garlic, zucchini, green beans and tomato. Feel free to use whatever veggies you have on hand! They differ from traditional stuffed peppers as they really don’t have much of a binder in them. I keep them grain free and low carb by adding only romano cheese and a bit of olive oil in the stuffing. If I have dairy free guests, I’ll pull their stuffing out prior to adding the cheese. Feel free to add some seasoned bread crumbs and an egg if you prefer a more traditional stuffing. Vegans could easily substitute nutritional yeast for the cheese as well.
For a summer dinner party I recently hosted, the original plan was to make Ground Turkey Stuffed Peppers. When my peppers arrived in my Misfits Market box, however, they were much smaller than I anticipated. I decided, instead, to serve these Veggie Stuffed Pepper Cups as a side dish along with Garlic and Herb Grilled Chicken and a Rosemary and Thyme Herbed Focaccia based on a recipe from Sallys Baking Addiction. The Veggie Stuffed Pepper Cups were a wonderful way to showcase freshly picked green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, and basil and made for a beautiful presentation.
The stuffing mixture is both flexible and forgiving. It’s a great way to use up veggies you have on hand, especially if you just have a little of this and a little of that left in your fridge at the end of the week. Think of the ingredients in this post as merely a suggestion. As always, taste as you go along to make sure the flavors and seasonings are to your liking
If you are looking for a vegetarian main course instead of a side dish, you could easily increase the protein by adding some cannellini beans or chickpeas to your stuffing mixture. Chopped walnuts or pine nuts would also make a wonderful addition to the stuffing. You could also keep it vegetarian and serve the Pepper Cups alongside some protein filled red lentil or chick-pea pasta.
Veggie Stuffed Pepper Cups
Ingredients
- 4 bell peppers halved with seeds and stems removed
- 2 tbsp olive oil plus more for drizzling
- 1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 large onion chopped
- ½-1 pint cherry or grape tomato diced
- 1 cup fresh green beans diced small
- ⅐-1 small zucchini seeded and diced
- ½-1 pint mushrooms chopped
- 4-6 large garlic cloves minced
- 2 handfulls fresh spinach
- 10-15 leaves fresh basil chopped
- 8 whole basil leaves
- 1 egg beaten (optional)
- 4 tbsp seasoned breadcrumbs (optional)
- ½ cup romano, parmesan, or asiago cheese grated, plus more for topping
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Cut peppers in half and remove seeds. Place cut side down in a baking dish with a couple of tablespoons of water in the bottom. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave for 4-6 minutes until partially cooked.
- While the peppers are pre-cooking in the microwave, drizzle some olive oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add a pinch crushed red pepper to infuse the oil with this flavor.
- Sauté onions, green beans, and mushrooms until softened. If your green beans are especially thick, you may need to steam these a bit prior to cooking. If chopped small enough, or they are thin enough, this is not necessary. This will take 5-8 minutes depending on how large you chopped these vegetables.
- Add chopped tomato and zucchini cook and cook another 3-5 minutes.
- Add garlic and saute for another minute or two until fragrant. Add more oil if needed.
- Add spinach and stir to soften and incorporate.
- Take veggies off the heat add bread crumbs and/or cheese if using. Mix in fresh basil. If the stuffing seems dry, add a drizzle of oil.
- The stuffing mix will be loose. The peppers act as small bowls for your veggie mixture. If you prefer more of a bound together stuffing, let it cool then add beaten raw egg. This step is optional.
- Oil or spray the bottom of the baking dish. Fill the peppers with the veggies and top with a whole basil leaf, and more cheese if desired, and a drizzle of oil.
- At this point, you can cool, cover and refrigerate until ready to bake. When ready, bring to room temperature and bake at 375° for 20 -30 minutes or until heated through. Top with more cheese if desired prior to serving.