Hearty Stuffed Bell Peppers - Vegan GF
Texture is slightly crunchy with a creamy, Smoky BBQ, tomato taste.The protein I used was red lentils.Diet:This dish is completely plant based, and low in calories . Perfect dinner if you are on my weight management program.Vegan, Vegetarian, sodium friendly, child friendly, diabetic friendly, and celiac friendly.
Equipment
- Large Pan
- Medium Pot
- Round or small size baking dish
- Blender or Food Processor
- Garlic Press
- cup, 1/4 tsp, 1/2 tsp, tsp, tbsp,
Ingredients
Large pan for Lentils and Tomato Sauce
- 2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
- 1 Small onion or 1/2 large
- 2 Cloves garlic pressed
- 2 tbsp Tomato paste
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper ground
- 1/4 tsp Smoked Paprika
- 1 Can 796ml Whole peeled tomato's
- 1/2 Filtered water
- 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp Ground black pepper
- 1 tsp Himalayan or sea salt. use less if you are watching your sodium intake.
- 2 tsp Coconut sugar
Cook Lentils
- 1 cup Red or Green Lentils washed and drained.
- 2 cups Filtered Water
Vegan Parmesan
- 3/4 cup Raw cashews
- 3 tbsp Nutritional yeast
- 1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1/2 tsp Himalayan or sea salt
Bell Peppers
- 3 Bell peppers cleaned, dried. Take of a very thin part of the bottoms off so they sit without falling over. Then remove all seeds and membranes inside. Rinse and set aside.
- 2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp Italian spice
- 1/2 tsp Cumin powder
- 1/2 tsp Garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp Onion powder
- 1/2 tsp Himalayan or sea salt ground
- 1/2 tsp Black pepper ground
Instructions
Plant based Parmesan
- Use blender or food processer to chop up the cashews, nutritional yeast, salt and garlic powder.Pulse quite a few times until the texture is a grainy meal.Put in a bowl or jar.Set aside.
Tomato Sauce
- Use blender or food processor and pulse 8 times just to break up the tomatoes but not to puree it.Remove 1 cup of the tomato sauce and set aside. This will be used for putting at the bottom of the baking dish to bake the bell peppers in..Set aside
Boil the Lentils
- Add the 2 cups of water to the medium pot and bring to a boil.Add the rinse lentils. Once the water starts to boil again turn down to simmer for 20 minutes or until the lentils have softened a bit.Drain the water if there is any.
Tomato BBQ sauce
- In a large pan add the olive oil on medium low. Add in the chopped onion and cook for 8-10 minutes. Do not let them burn.Add in the tomato paste, crushed garlic, Italian seasoning, pepper, black pepper, smoked paprika, chili powder, and cumin. Allow to fuse flavours together for 2 minutes.Add in the cooked lentils and pulsed tomato's. Put the lid on and let simmer for 1 hour. Stir once in while..
- Preheat the oven to 425°F
Bake the Bell Peppers
- Add the 1 cup of left over tomato sauce and place at bottom of round baking dish. Add in the bell peppers standing on their bottoms.Remove the top of the bell pepper lids before baking.Pour over all of the bell peppers inside and out, the olive oil, Italian spices, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper.Bake for 15 minutes.
- Remove the baked bell pepper from the oven and fill them individually with the lentil bbq sauce. Over fill them, and use up all of the sauce even if some drips down into the bottom tomato sauce.Top with a thick layer of the vegan parmesan cheese.Bake for 15 minutes. They should be a little brown on top.
- Remove from oven.Top with a little fresh or dried basil optional.If there are any left overs, allow to cool completely. store covered in the fridge for left overs the next day.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!