Polenta Stuffed Peppers

Looking for a quick and easy, yet tasty and beautiful dish? Try these! I absolutely love polenta with anything, so this really worked for me. I have a recipe for Creamy Yellow Grits which I used in making this. Grits and polenta… what's the difference? Not much. Grits are a southern U.S. favorite and modern grits grits are commonly made of alkali-treated corn known as hominy and are a bit more course than the ground corn used in polenta. Anyway, I used my Creamy Yellow Grits recipe for these and it worked out great. If you are wanting a lower fat version of the polenta, simply replace the cashew milk in the recipe with water. 

I love Bob's Red Mill products and use these a lot.

I also topped my peppers with some simple, sautéed mushrooms and onions for extra flavor and nutrients. Guess what I found??? A no-salt-added tomato sauce at Trader Joe's! Score! It's pretty tasty, too. I'm not sure if it's a new product or if I've just missed seeing all this time but I'm sold.

Go, T-Joe's!

Here is the simple recipe:

Ingredients:

• 3-4 red bell peppers
• 1 recipe Creamy Yellow Grits
• 1 jar of your favorite tomato sauce
• 2 TBS nutritional yeast
• chopped parsley and a handful pine nuts to garnish (optional)
• 1 sweet onion, sliced
• ½ pound mushrooms, sliced (any kind, I used large, white mushrooms)
• 2 cloves garlic, diced

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Make the creamy grits, a.k.a. polenta.
3. Coat the bottom of a baking dish with tomato sauce. You want to use a baking dish that will hold your peppers upright, so preferably a smallish one.
4. Cut a hole in the top of each pepper, removing the stem and pull out the seeds and the pith.
5. Fill each pepper with the polenta, cover loosely with foil and bake for about 30-40 minutes, until the peppers are slightly soft but not totally mushy.
6. While the peppers are baking, water-sauté your mushrooms, onions and garlic until tender.
7. When the peppers are done baking, top with chopped parsley, nutritional yeast and pine nuts, if using. Then, when you serve them, add the mushrooms and onions and use the remaining tomato sauce as desired for a wonderful, whole-food meal.

Makes 3-4 stuffed peppers. Enjoy!

Healthy trails,