Spicy Quinoa-Stuffed Red Capsicum with Mexican Green Rice & Lentils

I love stuffed vegetables!

This recipe uses a couple of my favourite, super-simple everyday recipes (Mexican Quinoa and Mexican Green Rice & Lentils), but putting them together with the stuffed capsicum makes an attractive plant-strong dish with the "wow factor"!

Ingredients

4 red capsicum (I know I have used 3 here, but that is all I had in my fridge at the time!)

Spicy Quinoa Stuffing

2 cups cooked quinoa
1/2-1 cup cooked black beans (I have used black beluga lentils in this recipe, because that's what I happened to have in my pantry)
Kernels from 1 ear corn
200ml tomato passata
1 tomato, diced
1/2 capsicum, diced
2 green onions, finely slices
1 small or 1/2 large onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 chilli, deseeded and finely sliced ( or more of you like it super-spicy!)
1 teaspoon cumin
Salt and pepper
1-2 teaspoons olive oil

Mexican green rice and lentils

2 cups brown rice (OPTIONAL: cook the day before and refrigerate overnight! Click here to find out why I recommend "carby" foods like rice, legumes and potatoes should be cooked and then refrigerated for 12-24 hours!)
1-1 1/2 cups green lentils (OPTIONAL: You can cook and refrigerate these overnight too!)
1 bunch parsley
1/2 bunch coriander (cilantro)
1 small onion or 1/2 large onion, diced
1-2 cloves garlic, according to taste
2 green onions
1-2 green chillies, according to taste
1/2-1 cup stock or water
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper

Method

Spicy Quinoa Stuffing

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Taste to ensure you have enough seasoning, and add more if needed..
Set mix aside, ready to stuff the capsicum.

Mexican Green Rice and Lentils

Place parsley, coriander, green onions, garlic, chillies, stock/water and salt and pepper in food processor and blend for 1 minute or until a paste forms.
In a bowl, combine this paste with rice, lentils and diced onion. Mix well to combine.

Assemble

Spread Mexican Green Rice and Lentil mix on bottom of a baking dish. Add 1/2 cup water to the tray. The mixture should be quite "wet" as any liquid in the mix will evaporate during cooking.
Cut a "lid" into each capsicum, and cut away seeds.
Spoon Spicy Quinoa Stuffing mix into each capsicum.
Place capsicum "lid" on each capsicum.
Arrange stuffed capsicums in baking dish (the rice and lentil mix will hold them in place)

Bake

Place baking dish in a pre-heated oven (180 degrees Celsius) and cook for 60-90 minutes.
This dish gets better the longer you cook it. For a longer cook, lower the heat.