Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers with Millet Black Bean Pilaf and Roasted Red Pepper Sauce {Bob's Red Mill Giveaway}

Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers with Millet Black Bean Pilaf

The last few weeks, my CSA Box has been overflowing with red peppers, and I've been trying to figure out what to do with all of them...that's how these Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers with Millet Black Bean Pilaf came about. I've been thinking of making stuffed peppers with whole grains for a while, so this was the perfect excuse to try them.

Millet is one of the ancient grains, along with quinoa, amaranth, sorghum, spelt and teff. If you've never tried millet, it cooks up light and fluffy and is very mild in taste. Although many recipes suggest a 2 to 1 ratio of liquid to millet, I found the ratio of 4 to 1 worked best in order to fully cook the millet. When I tried the 2 to 1 ratio, I almost burned the millet as it sucked up all the liquid before being fully cooked.

I still had some Roasted Red Pepper Carrot Pesto leftover from the other day, and thought it would make the perfect topping for these stuffed peppers. I cooked the millet pilaf on the stove first, then tossed in some black beans and tomatoes, before stuffing the peppers.

The peppers needed to bake for an hour (covered) before they were nice and tender. I put a little broth in the bottom of the pan before covering everything, which helped to steam the peppers and keep the millet pilaf nice and moist. Topped with a little thinned Roasted Red Pepper Carrot Pesto, these stuffed peppers are pretty enough to serve to company or to enjoy for a meatless meal.

And now for our final giveaway in celebration of Whole Grains Month... we're topping it off with a fantastic giveaway from Bob's Red Mill, who produces a wide diversity of whole grain products, including a full line of certified gluten free products and an extensive line of certified organic products.

Giveaway Details:

Bob's Red Mill is giving away a gift package featuring their Bob's Red Mill Cookbook Whole & Healthy Grains For Every Meal Of The Day, a canvas tote and an assortment of gluten-free ancient grains -- Quinoa, Amaranth, Millet and Teff. If you've never tried these ancient grains, don't be intimidated - there are lots of recipes in the cookbook to get you started.

How To Enter:

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment sharing a favorite whole grain recipe (links are welcome), or how you plan on adding more whole grains to your daily diet. The deadline for entering this giveaway is 10/5/11, 12 midnight EST. One Winner will be chosen using random.org and will have 4 days to respond or a new winner will be selected (please be sure to include your email address in your comment). For U.S. residents only.

You can earn additional entries by doing any of the following. Be sure to leave a separate comment for each additional entry so I know you did it:

1. Stumble this post and follow me on @JeanettesHealth on Stumbleupon 
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3. Tweet this giveaway, being sure to include my Twitter handle (@JeanettesHealth).
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Disclosure: Bob's Red Mill provided this giveaway as part of Whole Grains Month, to help encourage all of us to add more whole grains to our daily meals :)

Today is also the last day to enter the Whole Grains Council's Whole Grains Stampede Sweepstakes, so be sure to enter for a chance to win some prizes.

Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers with Millet Black Bean Pilaf and Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup millet, rinsed
• 2 cups plus 1/2 cup vegetable broth, divided
• 1 carrot, peeled and diced
• 1/4 onion, finely diced
• 1 fresh thyme sprig
• 1/2 cup tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 cup cooked black beans
• 2 red bell peppers, halved and seeded
• 4 tablespoons Roasted Red Pepper Sauce, thinned with broth or water until desired consistency

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Place millet, 2 cups broth, carrot, onion and thyme sprig in a small saucepan.
3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cook, covered for 25 minutes. Check after 20 minutes and add more broth as needed.
4. Remove from heat and gently stir in chopped tomatoes and black beans.
5. Spoon into red bell pepper halves.
6. Pour 1/2 cup broth into a square baking pan or pie pan.
7. Place stuffed peppers in pan.
8. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour.
9. To serve, spoon Roasted Red Pepper Pesto on top.

Serves 3-4.


This recipe has been submitted to the Wholesome Wholegrain Cooking event on Lite Bite, hosted in October by Beyond the Peel where millet is the 'key' ingredient for the month.