Jerk spiced stuffed peppers

 

I’m calling on all my spicy food lovers out there. These stuffed peppers are for you! They are spicy, without stripping your taste buds, chewy, and loaded with good for your soul ingredients such a farro, mushrooms and collard greens.

Now, here’s a few fun facts about me and where these peppers get their inspiration…

My husband Chris and I started dating around the time of my birthday, which is in early December. Around that time, is also when I do a retrospect of my year. I look at what I’ve accomplished, what I’ve failed at, what goals I get to scratch off my list and what goals still need to be crushed. I look at the good and the bad and reflect on it. I also make a list of 3 (yes, 3, which sounds like a fair number: not too many, not too few) resolutions for the year to come (why wait until January 1st!). I also write down the steps I think I need to take to get to where I wanna go. It’s also a time where I reflect on how I feel about my life in general and what needs to be changed, added or deleted!

One of the things I knew needed to be added to my resolution list was taking more time for myself. Even though I didn’t feel burned out, I knew I couldn’t keep up this pace. So I decided this new resolution was going to start off with a bang. It was going to start with a beach vacation. Now this may not seem like such a bang for some, but this was going to be my first real vacation in over 5 years! Since I traveled quite extensively for work, and I never really took time off of work, a beach vacation sounded like an extravagant luxury for me. And I was going to go for it…

Needless to say, when I told Chris about my resolution to take a relaxing beach vacation, he suggested we go together to his favourite place: Jamaica. Jamaica was the last place I had vacationed, 5 years earlier, so I thought it was a great idea to pick up where I left off.

Jamaica did not disappoint! It was everything I needed it to be and then some. And the food…the food was simply scrumptious! Our favourite thing to eat came from this food cart that was pushed around the resort, from 11am to 11pm with the most amazing jerk spiced food ever! The sauce was dark and thick and spicy. But not the kind of spicy where you can’t feel your tongue or taste buds for days. The kind of spicy that made your mouth water with delight. Yes, it was that good! Chris and I would eagerly wait by the beach for the food cart to roll around and would unapolagicoly pounce on it as it made it’s way to us. We would take our paper plates back to our beach chairs and devour what ever was on it, licking our fingers between every bite… My mouth is watering at the recollection as I’m writing this.

So that’s where these peppers come from! They come from the recollection of that food cart and it’s jerk sauce.

If you’ve been to Jamaica, I hope these peppers bring back some wonderful memories. If you haven’t been, close your eyes as you eat these and picture yourself on a beach with some soft reggae music playing in the background. Trust me, you’ll almost feel like you are there!

I hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoyed making them.

Leave me a comment to tell me what recipe you make that’s inspired by your travels or what tradition you have around your birthday.

xx

Jerk spiced stuffed peppers
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8 portions
The level of spiciness of this recipe will depend on how much of the jerk spice sauce you put in it. Start with 1 Tbs and work your way from there. If you think you and your family can handle a little more heat, add another tablespoon and enjoy! This recipe will makes extra and keeps well in the fridge.
Ingredients
  • For the jerk sauce
  • 1/2 Cup ground allspice berries
  • 1/4 Cup packed brown sugar
  • 8 garlic cloves
  • 2 to 4 Scotch bonnet peppers, seeded and cored
  • 2 Tbs thyme, ground
  • 10 green onions
  • 1 Tbs ginger, fresh
  • 1 Tbs cinnamon, ground
  • 1/2 Tbs nutmeg, ground
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 2 Tbs red palm oil
  • 1 Tbs lemon juice
  • 1 Tbs coconut seasoning (similar to soy sauce)
  • For the stuffed peppers
  • 4 peppers, seeded and cut in half, length wise
  • 1 Cup farro
  • 2 1/2 Cups water
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • 6 collard green stalks, ribs removed and chopped
  • 1 Cup mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 large onion
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • Chive for presentation
Instructions
  1. For the jerk spice mix, add everything to a food processor and blend until smooth. Set aside.
  2. For the stuffed peppers.
  3. Preheat the oven at 400 degrees.
  4. In a medium size pot, bring 21/2 cups of water to a boil. Add the salt and farro.
  5. Reduce to medium heat and cook for 25-30 minutes. (make your jerk spice mix during this time).
  6. In a sauce pan over medium heat, add the olive oil and onions. Stir and cook for 3 minutes.
  7. Add the mushrooms and cook for another 3 minutes.
  8. Add the chopped collard greens and cook for another 3 minutes.
  9. Transfer the vegetable mixture to a mixing bowl and set aside.
  10. Oil the bottom of an iron skillet or oven safe dish and place the pepper halves.
  11. When the farro is cooked, add to the vegetable mix and stir to combine.
  12. Add 1 Tbs of jerk sauce and adjust to taste.
  13. Spoon the mixture evenly between the peppers.
  14. Place the skillet in the oven and cook for 30 minutes.
  15. Allow to cool at least 5 minutes and decorate with a little chive.

 

 

All vegetable stuffed peppers

 

 

Good evening beautiful friends,

I don’t know about you, but one of the reasons I enjoy cooking so much is to make other people happy. Yes, I’m a people pleaser. I like to make other people smile. It makes me happy when people are happy because of the food I made for them.  Since adopting a plant based lifestyle, my main focus has been to show my friends and family how amazing and flavourful, a plant based diet can be. I don’t force my lifestyle choices down their throats. But instead, I choose to show them how delicious it can be. And by offering them a delectable variety of flavours and tastes, I’m hoping they’ll be motivated to make more plant based meals of their own or “veganize” one of their favourite meals.

I’m always thrilled, and happily surprised, when my friends reach out to me for help on veganizing a family favourite dish or for help on how to make a vegan meal from scratch that everyone in the family will love, including the meat-eating partner or the very picky toddler. It means I’m doing my job well. That makes me super happy!

And this is what this recipe is: a veganized version of one of my favourite meals my mom used to make when I was younger. Back then, the peppers were stuffed with a mixture of ground beef, white rice, diced tomatoes, celery, onion and spices. And it was served with a nice green side salad. Now I haven’t changed the side dish and still serve the stuffed pepper with a green salad, but I definetly modified the filling.

I also wanted to make the filling gluten and grain free. Like I mentioned in a previous post, my mom went gluten free a few years ago, in a desperate attempt to cure her acute arthritis that kept her away from her piano. My mom has been playing the piano for over 50 years so for her to not be able to play, was devastating. Well, I can happily report that my mom is now back at her piano and her arthritis is almost completely cleared. I do have to mention that she cut out more then just gluten. She also cut out dairy (which I had been insisting on for years!), corn and other inflammation causing foods. The protocol she follows is the hypo toxic diet as described by Dre Jacqueline Lagacée in her book, “The End of Pain”. I would encourage you to take a look at her books if you feel you’re not operating on an optimum level and pain is part of your daily life. Although not plant based, her book does point out what foods to eliminate and for what reasons. She is a published immunologist so her books are based on tons of sound scientific research. I myself, implement a lot of her hypo toxic protocol while sticking to a plant based diet as I believe the lather is what keeps me at my healthiest and happiest.

So back to the stuffed peppers… To replace the grains and gluten, I made cauliflower rice. Now it’s not as intimidating or as weird as it may sound… Cauliflower rice is actually made of raw cauliflower that is passed through a grating blade or an s-shape blade of a food processor and pulsed until it looks like little grains of rice. To cook cauliflower rice, I add it to a hot wok-like pan with a little olive or coconut oil. I keep the pan hot so the rice doesn’t steam. I want it to be a bit crispy so I stir it constantly with a wooden spoon to prevent sticking and burning while keeping the pan hot. Cauliflower rice is a great replacement in many dishes that require rice or other grains.

I also added lentils in replacement for the minced meat to give it that extra boost of protein. Lentils are the power house of protein in the plant based world so I always find it’s a great addition to a dish. Salsa verde has replaced the diced tomatoes to give the dish a nice spicy kick. If you don’t like spicy food, you add canned diced tomatoes or mild salsa.

Once the peppers are stuffed, I pop them back into the oven for 40-45 minutes so they get that crispy top and soft outer shell. But you don’t have to! If you like your peppers crunchy, you can just fill them up and eat them right away or pop them in the oven under the broiler and let the top crisp up a few minutes.

I hope you guys enjoy this recipe. Leave a comment and let me know what family recipe you’ve transformed and veganized.

xx

All vegetable stuffed peppers
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4 portions
This recipe is a veganized version of a family favourite. I made it gluten and grain free for those that have eliminated these foods from their diet. However, if you have no problem with grains, you can add cooked rice instead of the cauliflower. This recipe calls for Montreal Steak Spice but trust me, it contains no steak whatsoever…I actually don’t know why that spice mix has that name!
Ingredients
  • 1 cauliflower head, washed and cut into chunks,
  • 1 Tbs coconut oil
  • 5 medium size peppers ( I use different coloured peppers to make it visually interesting)
  • 1 Cup cooked lentils
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 celery stalks, diced
  • 2/3 Cup salsa verde
  • 2 Tbs Montreal Steak Spice
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Cilantro and vegan yogurt to serve
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees.
  2. Wash and cut your cauliflower into chunks.
  3. Take your food processor out and insert a grating blade. Pass the cauliflower chunks through the feeder. The cauliflower should come out looking like little grains of rice.
  4. Set aside.
  5. Dice one of the five peppers, the onion, garlic and the celery.
  6. In a sauce pan, melt the coconut oil on medium high heat. Add the onions, garlic and celery.
  7. Cook for 2-3 minutes, until onion is translucent. Add the pepper and stir.
  8. Bring up the heat to high and add the cauliflower rice. Stir frequently and scrap the bottom of the pan to prevent burning.
  9. Turn the heat back down to medium and add the lentils, salsa and spices. Stir to combine.
  10. Take off the heat and set aside.
  11. Cut the remaining peppers in half and remove the core and seeds.
  12. Place peppers in an oven safe dish and rub a little coconut oil at the bottom to prevent burning.
  13. Place your peppers in the dish and stuff with the cauliflower filling.
  14. Place the dish in the oven for 40 to 45 minutes, until the peppers are soft and the filling is crispy.
  15. Serve with fresh cilantro and a dollop of vegan yogurt.