Southwestern Tofu and Red Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. Next, cook the quinoa: In a small sauce pot add your stock or water, turn heat to high and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add quinoa, turn heat to medium-low, and gently simmer with the lid on until quinoa is cooked. This will take about 10 minutes. Drain quinoa of its liquid once cooked, and set aside.

3. While quinoa is cooking, add your drained tofu into a food processor and process until it resembles grains of rice. This will take about 10 seconds. If you do not have a food processor, you can do this with a box grater. Set aside.

4. Also, while the quinoa is cooking, cut your washed bell peppers in half length-wise. Remove the seeds and (carefully) remove the green top. I just used my fingers for this. Set aside.

5. In a large non-stick pan, add your olive oil and heat over a medium to medium-high flame and heat until hot. Add your onions and cook 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

6. Next, add your “riced” tofu and cook another 2-3 minutes, or until the tofu becomes light golden brown. Make sure to stir occasionally.

7. Turn heat down to medium-low and add your tomato paste and garlic. Cook another minute, stirring frequently. You should start to really smell the garlic!

8. Turn heat off and add your cooked quinoa, olives, hot sauce, oregano, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper. Stir to combine thoroughly. Allow mixture to cool until you can touch it comfortably.

9. Stuff the mixture into your 4 pepper halves. I mean, really stuff it in there. Get it into all those nooks and crannies. Depending on the size of your peppers, you shouldn’t have any mixture left (or very little left). Add pepper halves into a baking pan, and fill bottom of pan with water until it’s 1/4″ of the way up the sides. Next, cover the dish with parchment paper and then with a sheet of foil and bake in oven for 25 minutes or until peppers are soft and cooked through.

10. Lastly, take parchment and foil off of pan and cover top of each pepper with a slice of muenster cheese. Place pan back into oven and bake another 5 minutes, or until cheese is melted! Serve warm.