Tuesday, January 8, 2008

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.

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4 comments:

  1. Awwww...you gave me a shout-out! Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed!

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  2. It looks delicious. I've been thinking of trying quinoa.

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  3. I've been thinking of trying quinoa as well.

    I want to try these stuffed tomatoes...however I hate green peppers. Any thoughts for a good substitution?

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  4. You definitely don't need the green peppers. If you want to add something else, try squash or zucchini cut up into tiny pieces.

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