Stuffed Bell Peppers

Stuffed bell peppers were one of my favorite meals when I was a child. I was fortunate enough to have a mom who asked me what I wanted to eat for lunch after school. She was the queen of the kitchen, and her cooking skills impressed everyone who got to enjoy her delicious food. Back then, I took it for granted that every meal she prepared was made with love and with the intention of making her family happy. I don’t even know if I ever really thanked her enough for taking my lunch orders on a regular basis and surprising me with my favorite dishes. I guess she took my clean plate as a thank you. I veganized her stuffed bell pepper recipe by swapping ground meet for tofu in the stuffing and using cashew-cheese sauce as a topping. The rest is pretty much as I remember it from my childhood. It’s absolutely delicious, gluten free and, of course, vegan! Enjoy!

Remember to soak cashews!

You will need:

• a high speed blender for cashew cheese sauce
• a large enough casserole dish to fit the stuffed bell peppers

Ingredients:

For the rice:

• 2 cups (360 g) wild rice blend
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 cups (950 ml) water, maybe some more
• 1 tsp Celtic sea salt

For the stuffing:

• 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 sweet onion, finely diced
• 14 oz (400 g), extra firm tofu
• 1 Tbsp sweet paprika powder
• 5 oz (140 g) grape- or cherry tomatoes, diced
• 1 medium-size carrot, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup (130 g) frozen corn
• 1 cup (125 g) frozen petite green peas
• ½ tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
• 1 tsp Celtic sea salt
• ½ cup fresh basil, chopped – leave some for topping

• 4 red bell peppers
• drizzle of extra virgin olive oil for the casserole dish

For the cheese sauce:

• 1 generous cup (140 g) raw, unsalted cashews, soaked in sufficient water for at least 4 hours, drained
• ½ cup (120 ml) water
• 1 clove garlic
• 4 Tbsp nutritional yeast
• ¾ tsp Celtic sea salt

Serving suggestion: serve with this ⇒ Tomato Basil Sauce

Preparation:

Prepare the Tomato Basil Sauce ahead of time, if you want to use it.

For the rice, preheat a large enough sauce pan over medium heat. Add extra virgin olive oil with rice blend and sauté for about 3 minutes or until fragrant. Add water with Celtic sea salt, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer covered until done. Every rice blend is a little different, so follow instructions on package.

Meanwhile prepare the stuffing:

Rinse/cut vegetables and use your fingers to crumble tofu.

Preheat a large pot or sauce pan over medium heat. Add extra virgin olive oil with onion and sauté for about 7 minutes until soft.

Add crumbled tofu and sauté 10 more minutes while stirring frequently. Towards the end of the 10 minutes, add sweet paprika powder and thoroughly combine.

Now add grape-/cherry tomatoes, carrot, and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes.

Add frozen corn and peas, optionally the red pepper flakes, and Celtic sea salt. Cook for 3 more minutes until corn and peas are thawed, then turn off heat.

Add fresh basil, but leave some for topping. Stir to combine.

Stir the cooked rice into the veggie-tofu mix, then set aside while you prep the bell peppers.

Set oven temperature to 400° F/200° C.

Cut bell peppers lengthwise right through the stem and down. The goal is to leave the stem halves intact. Remove seeds.

Drizzle some olive oil into the casserole dish. Spoon the stuffing into bell pepper halves and place them into the dish. There will be more stuffing than you need. Keep it in the pot and warm up later to serve on the side.

For the cheese sauce, place all the cheese sauce ingredients into your high speed blender and blend at the highest setting for about 3 minutes until very creamy and hot. Evenly spread the sauce onto the stuffed peppers, then bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes. Keep checking after 30 minutes. The peppers should still have some bite and the cheese sauce should still have a light color.

Top with fresh basil, then serve with tomato basil sauce and the remaining stuffing! Enjoy!

Notes:

• You could cheat by using store-bought basil tomato sauce, but I highly recommend ⇒ this one!
• Vegan Parmesan or cashew Parmesan would make a wonderful topping.
• There are only 3 ingredients for home made cashew Parmesan:
  • 1 generous cup (140 g) raw, unsalted cashews
  • 1 tsp Celtic sea salt
  • 4 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
• To prepare, place all the ingredients into your blender or food processor. Pulse until a crumbled Parmesan-like texture is achieved. Ready in less than 2 minutes!