Quinoa stuffed peppers with Stilton

Quinoa stuffed peppers with Stilton are an attractive vegetarian side dish or appetiser and are easy to make.

They can be prepared in advance for convenience. You can also use the same filling for other stuffed vegetable recipes.

If you have some extra cooked quinoa you could use it to make some blue cheese mushrooms with quinoa or this roast cauliflower and quinoa salad.

If you are looking for other ideas for vegetable side dishes you may like to take a look as this recipe for stuffed mushrooms, spinach croquettes, hasselback carrots or make some Swiss chard with almonds and raisins.

Ingredients

• 4 medium sized sweet peppers
• 1 medium onion
• About 4 button mushrooms
• 200g cooked quinoa
• 25g sultanas
• 2 tablespoons Stilton (or other strong flavoured cheese which is suitable for cooking)
• Olive oil

How to prepare

Slice the peppers in half lengthwise leaving the stalks in place if possible, and scoop out the seeds. Place on a baking tray and drizzle each pepper with a little olive oil. Bake in a hot oven until soft (around 10 minutes or so).

Cut the onions and mushrooms into small pieces. Fry gently in a little olive oil until soft and then set aside to cool.

Place the cooked quinoa in a mixing bowl. Here I used a mixture of red and white quinoa simply because I like the mixture of colours but either colour could be used. Add the cooked onion and mushrooms, and then the sultanas and mix together.

Pack the mixture into the cooked halved peppers and then crumble the Stilton on top. If you are preparing the peppers to cook later you can cover with foil at this stage and place in the fridge.

To bake

Cover with foil and cook in a hot oven, 200^oC, 400^oF, gas mark 6 until the filling has heated through and the cheese has melted (approximately 10 minutes).

To serve

• Quinoa stuffed peppers can be served either hot or cold.
• They are not suitable for reheating.

Advance preparation

• The stuffing mixture can be prepared in advance an stored in the fridge.
• The stuffed peppers can be prepared in advance and cooked just before serving.

Tips

1. Any colour of peppers could be used but I find that a mixture of colours looks great on the table.
2. It is useful to cook more quinoa than needed and freeze in portions to make it quicker and easier to prepare a recipe such as this roast cauliflower and quinoa salad.
3. Stilton is a popular English blue cheese which is great for cooking, but if you cannot buy Stilton in your area then you could substitute another type of strong cheese which is suitable for cooking.
4. The stuffing mix can also be used for other stuffed vegetable dishes such as mushrooms or artichokes.

Other vegetable dishes