Orzo Stuffed Peppers

Adapted slightly from The Novice Chef

These are not your typical heavy, ground-meat fill stuffed peppers with thick tomato sauce.  No- these are a wonderful lighter vegetarian version of stuffed peppers that have been officially added to my repertoire of meals.  They are delicious!  

I love bell peppers- especially yellow ones.  I made these with one each of red, orange, yellow and green peppers.  Of course you know who got to eat the yellow one....

These are so, SO good!  The flavor of the filling is outstanding. And, they are healthy too!  The only ingredient that is not healthy is the cheese, and there is less than 1/4 cup in each pepper- so that's a win in my book!

You must try these!

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil


1 medium onion, chopped


3 cloves garlic, minced


2 cups fresh spinach leaves, roughly chopped


1 (15 ounce can) can diced tomatoes
 


Salt and pepper

½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese (I used Swiss because that’s what I had on hand)

1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus additional for sprinkling

4 cups vegetable broth


1 cup orzo


4 large bell peppers

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  In a medium skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for two more minutes. Stir in the spinach. Cook until spinach is wilted. Remove from heat.

Pour the tomatoes into a large bowl and stir in the spinach mixture. Set aside.

Meanwhile, bring the vegetable broth to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the orzo and cook for five minutes (the orzo should only be partially cooked, as it will finish cooking in the oven). Strain the orzo, reserving 1½ cups of the vegetable broth.

Stir the orzo into the tomato spinach mixture. Add the cheeses and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Pour the reserved vegetable broth into a medium sized baking dish or roaster. Slice the tops off the peppers and remove all ribs and seeds. If your peppers don’t stand upright in your dish, cut a very thin slice from the bases so they will stand level.

Place the peppers in the baking dish/roaster and spoon the orzo mixture into the peppers. Cover the dish with foil, or if using roaster, place the lid on the roaster.  Bake for 40 minutes. Remove the foil or lid, sprinkle the top of each pepper with additional Parmesan cheese and continue baking until the cheese is golden, about 5 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let peppers sit for five minutes before serving.

Yields: 4 servings

Print This Page