Quinoa Stuffed Tomatoes
So I'm on this little health kick and am really trying to focus on changing the way I eat. When I wrote out my menus for the week, I chose to make stuffed tomatoes tonight. But I wanted an alternative to the white rice, and I don't really like brown rice.
I had heard of quinoa before so did a little research on it since I thought the quinoa would be the perfect substitute for white rice. Then I asked around in a cooking chat room I frequent, and got a lot of positive responses, including a response from this cook who used quinoa in her stuffed peppers. So I gave it a shot tonight and am glad I did - quinoa is really good!
When making stuffed tomatoes or peppers I just throw ingredients together instead of following a recipe. Here are some tomatoes I made a few months ago. Of course these could be made with real ground meat which is why I also gave this post a beef tag.
This is what I did tonight -
- Hollow out tomatoes and set in a baking dish
- Cook quinoa: rinse quinoa a few times then put 1/2 cup of it into a pot with 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil then lower to a simmer for about 10-15 minutes until the water is absorbed.
- In the meantime, heat about 1 tbsp olive oil in a large pan. Add some chopped onion, chopped green pepper, and chopped garlic; saute. Add ground meat (I used MorningStar Farms Recipe Crumbles, fake ground meat). Add spices; I used red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, a pinch of oregano and some parsley flakes. Add about 1/4 cup of tomato sauce.
- Once the meat mixture is cooked, combine it with the quinoa.
- Fill each tomato with the mixture. Cook on 350 for 15-20 minutes.
- Top each tomato with some Parmesan cheese and put them under the broiler for a few minutes.
Here is a closeup of the meat-quinoa mixture.
They were very, very good and I think I might even be able to get Jon to try the quinoa! I imagine it would be good cooked in broth and with some spices or even some tiny chopped up veggies. I'm going to have fun trying new things with quinoa. Print this post
Awwww...you gave me a shout-out! Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed!
ReplyDeleteIt looks delicious. I've been thinking of trying quinoa.
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking of trying quinoa as well.
ReplyDeleteI want to try these stuffed tomatoes...however I hate green peppers. Any thoughts for a good substitution?
You definitely don't need the green peppers. If you want to add something else, try squash or zucchini cut up into tiny pieces.
ReplyDelete