This is plant-based version of a traditional comfort food favorite. I didn’t use rice in my recipe but feel free to add brown rice if you like. Instead, I used lots of fresh veggies and I didn’t miss the extra carbs at all.
I recommend 2 whole peppers per person, but I make more so we have for lunch or another dinner.
Ingredients:
3 large bell peppers (I like the red, orange and yellow)
Olive oil spray
Red pepper flakes
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 whole small yellow onion, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, roughly chopped
1 whole zucchini, chopped
2 cups spinach, roughly chopped
1 large can of diced tomatoes (I prefer fire roasted)
1 9 oz package steamed lentils
Kosher or sea salt
Ground pepper
Nutritional Yeast to flavor sauce
Plant-based “mozzarella” shreds (Trader Joe’s cashew based are my favorite)
Fresh basil to garnish
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Wash peppers, cut in half and clean out seeds and place in baking dish face down.
- Spray tops of peppers with olive oil to just lightly coat and season with salt and pepper.
- Place peppers in oven and roast until they start to blister, then tun over and set aside.
- In skillet heat olive oil spray with red pepper flakes.
- Saute onions and garlic until onions are translucent and garlic is fragrant.
- Add mushrooms and zucchini and continue to saute until they are softened.
- Add can of chopped tomatoes, season with salt and pepper.
- Add steamed lentils, crumbling in the package while adding to the sauce, then add spinach and season with Nutritional Yeast* and more salt and pepper as needed to taste.
- Stir sauce together and let simmer about 5-10 minutes.
- Spoon sauce mixture into each pepper half and sprinkle with plant-based “mozzarella” shreds.
- Place peppers back in oven on Broil until the cheese starts to melt and brown (not burn).
- When finished garnish with basil (I forgot to do this when I took my photo).
- Serve and Enjoy!
Note: *Nutritional Yeast is a vegan substitute for grated Parmesan cheese but has a nice flavor to add to plant-based sauces and pasta dishes. It contains lots of vitamins and even some protein.
This recipe is great left over (hot or cold) for lunch or another dinner and I usually have extra sauce to add to plant-based pasta for another meal.
This is my version adapted from many different recipes I have found and tried.
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