After watching an episode of Martha Stewart the other day that was focused on healthy eating, in particular the benefits of eating quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah), I decided to dust off the quinoa box and give it a shot. One of the suggestions was to use it to substitute rice in a dish. I had just bought several beautiful red and orange peppers, so I figured I’d stuff them with quinoa. The end result was phenominal. Even my fussy little eaters were gobbling up the peppers. It was definitely a successful experiment. I hope you will dust off your box of quinoa (or go buy a fresh one) and give this one a try! It’s worth the effort to make the orange-chipotle glaze for this one. The recipe follows. Enjoy!
Stuffed Peppers – You Won’t Believe How Good They Are!!
Ingredients
- Chipotle-Quinoa & Turkey Stuffed Peppers
- 1 1/2 lbs ground turkey
- 2/3 cup onion, chopped
- 2/3 cup green peppers, chopped
- Cooking spray
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 1/3 cup orange chipotle glaze
- 8 whole peppers
- 2/3 cup ketchup
- 2 cups quinoa
- *This is from Emeril Lagasse's "Prime Time Emeril" cookbook
- 1 cup fresh orange juice
- 8 cups sugar
- 2 cups apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup soy sauce
- One 7-ounce can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, puréed in the blender (or finely chopped, with their liquid)
Orange-Chipotle Glaze
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°.
- Spray a frying pan with cooking spray. Heat to medium-high and then add the chopped onion. Saute for 3-4 minutes. Add chopped peppers and saute for another 4 minutes or until soft. Add ground turkey and cook until no longer pink.
- Put turkey mixture into a bowl and cool slightly.
- Meanwhile bring 4 cups of water to a boil and add quinoa. Cook for 20 minutes or until the quinoa pops open and the spiral inside comes out.
- Add cooked quinoa to the turkey mixture. Stir in garlic, oregano and orange chipotle glaze and salt & pepper to taste. Fill the peppers with the turkey mixture and place in a pyrex baking dish. Drizzle ketchup on tops of stuffed peppers. Bake 35-45 minutes.
- Bring the orange juice to a boil in a large heavy nonreactive stockpot or a Dutch oven over high heat, and boil until reduced to about 1/4 cup and thick.
- Reduce the heat to medium-high. Add the sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, and puréed chiles. Boil, stirring often, until the sugar has dissolved and the sauce has reduced to 4 cups and coats the back of a spoon, 20 to 30 minutes.
Directions
Orange-Chipotle Glaze
This keeps for three to four days in the refrigerator.
Recipe courtesy of www.farmgirlgourmet.com. Reprinting without permission is unethical.