This easy stuffed bell peppers recipe is everything you want in a dish-hearty, budget-friendly, and mum-approved. Enjoy it with a leafy green salad and some fresh fruit for a complete meal that will satisfy the whole family.
Using basic pantry staples like buckwheat flour and unsalted almonds, this stuffed peppers recipe is sure to become one of your go-to weeknight dinners.
What are stuffed bell peppers?
Stuffed bell peppers are a dish of stuffed and baked pepper halves, usually green or red bell peppers. The stuffing is typically prepared with ground meat, rice, chopped onion, tomatoes, and garlic. Other ingredients such as coconut oil, buckwheat flour, and peppers vary depending on the recipe.
Now to our recipe.
Easy Stuffed Bell Peppers With Buckwheat and Almonds
Serves: 2
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Preparation Time: 45 minutes
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a small baking dish with some cooking spray or line with parchment paper. Set aside.
Rinse pepper under cold running water and dry with a kitchen towel. Transfer to a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, cut each pepper in half, lengthwise, and remove the stem and seeds.
Rinse again making sure to remove any remaining seeds inside the pepper and pat dry.
Brush pepper halves with olive oil and sprinkle with some salt. Let it sit for a while.
The Filling
Now, prepare the filling. Place groats in a small pot and pour in enough water to cover.
Sprinkle with some salt and bring to a boil. Stir well once and reduce the heat to medium-low.
Simmer until all the liquid has evaporated and groats have completely softened. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
Lightly grease a non-stick frying pan with some oil or cooking spray and heat up over medium heat.
Add onions and saute until translucent, about 5-6 minutes, stirring constantly. Now, add diced tomatoes and pour in about two tablespoons of water (or even unsweetened tomato juice if you have any).
Reduce the heat to low and gently simmer until tomatoes have completely softened.
When done, sprinkle with dried celery, garlic powder, thyme, salt, and pepper to taste.
If the mixture is too sour for your taste, you can add about one teaspoon of sugar (make sure to choose brown sugar, cane sugar, or coconut palm sugar).
Finally, stir in the previously cooked buckwheat groats and goat's cheese. Mix all well and remove from the heat.
Place peppers in the prepared baking dish and stuff each with the tomato mixture. Depending on the size of the peppers, you might have some tomato mixture left – just top the peppers with it.
Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly golden brown on top. Remove from the oven and cool for about 10-15 minutes before serving.
Optionally, top each pepper with one tablespoon of sour cream or Greek yogurt. You can also serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
What makes stuffed bell peppers healthy?
In addition to being delicious, this stuffed green bell peppers dish is also packed with nutrition. Green bell peppers are an excellent source of vitamin C and beta-carotene (otherwise known as vitamin A). They provide dietary fiber, vitamin K, and potassium to help you fight heart disease, keep your bones strong, and maintain overall good health.
Their high vitamin C content also makes them an effective immunity booster, helping you avoid the common cold and other illnesses.
Another substance found in bell peppers – capsaicin is known for its multiple health benefits. It directly lowers the bad cholesterol levels, controls inflammation, and reduces the risk of diabetes.
Besides these well-known nutrients found in bell peppers, they are also an amazing source of vitamin B6, E, and several important enzymes such as lutein.
Stuffed peppers are a low-carb recipe option, making them perfect for those who follow keto or paleo diets.
This stuffed green pepper recipe uses buckwheat flour instead of breadcrumbs to keep it gluten-free and grain-free. The almonds in the stuffing provide healthy fats to keep you full, while buckwheat is a complete plant protein.
What makes a good filling?
It's really up to you. Fillings typically consist of some type of meat or vegetarian alternative, rice or quinoa, vegetables and herbs. For this dish, we decided to use buckwheat and almonds to make the stuffing.
Buckwheat is a seed that is often used in place of grains (especially rice) since it's gluten-free, nutrient-dense and high protein! It can be found at most grocery stores or online.
Along with being gluten-free, buckwheat works exceptionally well as a pâté or stuffing since it takes on the flavour of whatever you combine it with and helps absorb liquid.
For this recipe, we went with almonds since they are the most common nut in our pantry and work great for flours.
Almonds can be bought pre-blanched, raw, or blanched to reduce their natural phytic acid content which can cause digestive discomfort if consumed too quickly! They also happen to be a staple for many paleo and vegan dishes!
You can find almonds at most grocery stores or online from companies like Vitacost.
Not only that bell peppers look great with their brigth colors and firm textures, but they also taste fantastic in so many different recipes and have some mind-blowing nutritional benefits.
This fantastic vegetable has only about 45 calories per one cup but also that one cup provides more than your daily needs for vitamin A and C!
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Tips for best result
Baking stuffed bell peppers is a very simple process but there are a few tips to make sure you get the best result possible.
First, try not to stuff them too full with your mixture. You want to make sure they can sit upright on their own with a little space around the top, just in case your mixture expands as it cooks.
Second, try not to overcook them! The trick is really monitoring how soft the pepper becomes before taking it out of the oven.
We boiled our peppers for a couple of minutes before roasting then checked them every 5 minutes after roasting until they were the perfect amount of tender while still maintaining their shape.
Lastly, we topped ours with fresh parsley for colour and flavour, but you can top them with whatever you want!
Stuffed bell peppers are a perfect leftover meal. Make a couple extra to keep in the fridge and enjoy throughout the week!
You can eat them cold, warm them up in the oven or microwave, or even throw it on the grill if you're feeling but you can leave them alone or try any of your favourite sauces to fit your specific pallet.
Stuffing bell peppers is very easy and a great way to make sure you get some fresh vegetables in your diet! You can find recipes like this one all over the internet by searching for easy stuffed bell pepper recipes.
If you're looking for something a little different, try making stuffed onion or baked acorn squash!
Final thought on Easy Stuffed Bell Peppers With Buckwheat and Almonds
In this article, we’ve shown you how to make an easy stuffed bell peppers dish with buckwheat and almonds. The best part about these recipes is the ingredients- all of them can be found at your local grocery store.
In this recipe, we used buckwheat as the base and almond slivers for the top. This is an excellent choice to serve your family because it does not take any complicated ingredients or steps!
Hope you enjoyed this recipe? Feel free to any comment and let me know if it was easy enough.
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More Resources
Bioactive Compounds and Antioxidant Activity in Different Grafted Varieties of Bell Pepper