Stuffed Peppers Two Ways - Meat or Vegetarian

I wrote this recipe to be 1/2 vegetarian and 1/2 meat as lots of times we need both to satisfy a crowd.  If you're vegetarian skip the meat instructions and double or triple the amount of rice .  You can use leftover cooked rice in this recipe or any cooked grain such as quinoa or millet.  If you have leftover meat filling bake it in a small oven proof bowl and use it as a mini-meatloaf  or sliced for sandwiches.

Click on this link to print recipe.

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup brown rice, raw - 250 ml
6 sweet peppers, medium - I used 2 each red, yellow and green
1 jalapeno pepper (optional)
3 cloves of garlic
1 cup white onion finely diced
1/2 cup ketchup, barbecue or tomato sauce
2 eggs, medium
1 cup mushrooms, chopped fine
1 cup carrot grated - 250 ml
2 tsp each basil, ground cumin and chili powder
1/2 tsp sea salt - 2.5 ml
1/2 cup water - 125 ml for bottom of baking dish

Variations for this very flexible recipe: grated cheese for top of peppers.  Use any type of spices or herbs you like and have on hand such as Italian seasoning, dill, black pepper etc.  You can also used frozen mixed vegetables instead of the fresh and leftover cooked rice.  Other cooked grains like millet and quinoa also work well in place of the rice. 

METHOD:
Preheat oven to 350'F (190 'C)
1.  Cook the brown rice in unsalted water according to package directions.
2.  Cut peppers in half vertically through the stems and discard inner seeds and membranes.  Keep the stems on as they look nice and help to hold in the filling.

3.  Mix all the ingredients except for ground chicken/turkey/beef with cooked rice.  Set half aside for the vegetarian batch.  Omit the egg if you are vegan.  They won't stick together as well without the egg but it will still work.  Add 90 ml water and 30 ml flour for some "glue" for vegan stuffed peppers if egg is omitted.

4.  Add ground chicken/turkey/beef to other half of rice and mix well.

5.  Fill half the peppers with vegetarian rice mixture and the other half with the meat and rice filling. You can mound them fairly high.  Arrange in a baking dish and add water to bottom of baking dish. Sprinkle over grated cheese of your choice (optional).  The picture below shows the vegetarian stuffed peppers.

6.  Bake for 45 minutes or until chicken is set and peppers are cooked through to an internal temperature of 175'F (77'C).

Nutrition Facts (per 1/2 meat stuffed pepper): 160 calories, 7 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 60 mg cholesterol, 21 g carbohydrate, 2 g fibre, 5 g sugar, 250 mg sodium, 10 g protein. %Daily Values are 2% calcium, 6% iron, 6% vitamin A and 200% vitamin C.

Yours in good taste, © Nancy Guppy, RD, MHSc.  http://nancyguppy.com/

"the Eat Well Gourmet" Chickpea & Carrot Salad

I learned to make this salad in the early '80's when I was managing the Beaches location of the Eat Well Gourmet in Toronto.  The owner, Josephine Ingrao, was an administrative dietitian who created a successful take-out and catering business featuring healthy, gourmet foods.  I learned a lot from her as she was honest in her feedback and inspirational!  I got the job by combing the yellow pages for ads I liked and companies I might want to work for.  This is a recipe I go back to time and time again.

Chickpeas, or garbanzo beans, have gone mainstream in Canada largely since the spread hummus became popular.  I love hummus and often make it with peanut butter instead of tahini as I don't always have the latter around.  Here chickpeas are featured in a marinated salad which keeps well in the fridge up to a week.

The local foods used in my salad are fresh carrots, parsley I had frozen last summer and the mint in the vinegar.  I don't know if chickpeas are grown in Ontario or not?  My understanding is that they are mainly grown in the prairie provinces.  Eating vegetarian meals, like this salad, reduces your carbon footprint.

The rest of my ingredients are organic.  In my opinion, organic spices taste a lot better than conventional and if they are certified organic they are free of chemical pesticides and residue.  I am not an expert in organic food rules but there is opportunity to add non spice ingredients to spices.  Recently I heard of flour being added to a chili powder blend creating problems for people needing to follow a gluten free diet. Buying organic spices and other organic foods also allows you to avoid genetically modified crops.

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INGREDIENTS - all homegrown or organic
Makes 10 x 250 ml (1 cup) portions

6 cups (1.5 L) chickpeas, cooked
2 cups (500 ml) carrots, diced
1 cup (250 ml) parsley, fresh, minced
2 Tbsp (30 ml) paprika, sweet
1 Tbsp (150 ml) fennel seed
1/4 cup (60 ml) XV Olive Oil
1 cup (250 ml) herb or good vinegar*
1 tsp (5 ml) black pepper 

*Note: the vinegar I used was organic mint and white wine vinegar I had made back in August when the mint was fresh and plentiful in the garden.  Mint goes really well with this salad.  Other good choices are plain apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar..... something bold!  Black olives aren't part of the original recipe but they would go well.  The original Eat Well Gourmet recipe used diced canned artichoke hearts as well.

METHOD:

1.  Measure the cooked chickpeas into a good size salad bowl that you can store in the fridge.  If you are using canned rinse them under cold running water to remove some of the salt.  The equivalent is approximately 2-3 of the 598 ml cans drained.

2.  Cut carrots into quarters and slice across.  Lightly steam carrot chunks.

3.  Toss all together and garnish with minced parsley and a good sprinkle of paprika.  I used organic paprika and you might have noticed that it is not garrish red.  I suspect much of the mainstream paprika has added red dye.  This seems like a lot of vinegar but it gets soaked into the beans.  Using more vinegar also allows you to cut back on the higher fat and pricey olive oil.  You can adjust it to your taste. 

The photo below is of some local parsley I bought at the farmer's market.  I freeze it in zip-lock freezer bags.  Frozen parsley is a snap to slice and you can take what you want and put the rest back in the freezer for another recipe. 

 
Leave salad to marinate in the fridge for 2-3 hours before serving.

This salad is lower in fat than what is shown below as you wouldn't typically eat all of the dressing.

NUTRITION FACTS (per 158 gram or approx 1 cup - 250 ml serving): 230 calories, 9 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 25 mg sodium, 31 g carbohydrate, 6 g fibre, 6 g sugar, 9 g protein.  % Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet are 100% vitamin A, 20% vitamin C, 8% calcium and 20% iron.

10 Day Coleslaw

 Cabbage is an old time food that is affordable, in-season, very nutritious and it fits right into winter salads and hearty soups and stews.  

I don't know if you remember the Mennonite cookbooks written by Edna Stabebler.  I have "More Food That Really Schmecks."  She described how in the fall she would buy the biggest, heaviest cabbage she could find at the market and then stored in a plastic bag in her cold room until  it shrank enough to fit in her fridge!  Every week she took off a few of the outer leaves to make coleslaw, hot slaw or to shred and keep for several days in an airtight container in the fridge so she could easily mix as much as she needed with salad dressing or add to other salad ingredients.  Edna said that one cabbage would last her for months - she lived alone!  The book was printed in 1983 but copies are still available used.  It is a good book to have if you are looking for practical recipes that use in-season ingredients available in Canada.  

Coleslaw in one form or another is my "go to" winter salad.  I remember a coleslaw I made years ago that had a boiled vinaigrette that was poured over the shredded vegetables and it kept for three weeks!  I am of course intrigued by any recipe that promises to last and even improve over ten days. Plus with busy schedules it is convenient to have a ready-made salad in the fridge you can take as part of your lunch or add to meals.

We made this in our cooking class at the YMCA a few weeks ago and it was delicious.  After seven days (photo below) it did taste even better!  This was a rough chop salad.  You can finely shred the cabbage  easily using the shredding blade with the food processor.  We used a dark brown "demerara" organic sugar and it gave it a bit of a brown colour but some additional flavour.  I want to try it again using local honey instead of sugar.

INGREDIENTS:

Imperial	Metric Measure	Ingredients
8 cups	2 liters	Cabbage, green, shredded
4 cups	1 liter	Carrots, grated
1 cup	250 ml	Green pepper, diced fine
1 cup	250 ml	Onion, diced fine
1 ¼ cup	310 ml	Apple cider vinegar, natural (preferably with “mother”)
½ cup	125 ml	Olive oil, extra virgin
½ cup	125 ml	Sugar (I used organic dark brown sugar, demerara)
1 tsp	5 ml	Celery seed
1 ½ tsp	7.5 ml	Mustard powder, dry (like Coleman’s, no name is fine)
1 tsp	5 ml	Salt, sea
½ tsp	2.5 ml	Pepper, black

METHOD:

1.  In a large bowl combine the shredded cabbage and carrots, diced peppers and onions. Set aside.

2.  Combine vinegar, oil, sugar, dry mustard, celery seed, salt and pepper in a medium saucepan. Bring to boil over moderate heat, stirring to dissolve sugar, boil 3 minutes.
3.  Pour hot dressing over cabbage mixture and toss well. Let stand at room temperature for 30-60 minutes, tossing occasionally. For best results, cover and refrigerate 2 days. Keeps up to 10 days in refrigerator.

NUTRITION FACTS (per 108 gram serving)

Calories	100
Total Fat (g)	6
Saturated Fat (g)	1
Cholesterol (mg)	0
Carbohydrate (g)	13
Fibre (g)	2
Sugar (g)	6
Protein (g)	1
%Daily Values
Sodium	6 (140 mg)
Calcium	4
Iron	4
Vitamin A	80
Vitamin C	45

Eating cabbage and other cruciferous vegetables can help prevent cancer.   Cabbage is a cruciferous vegetable as are broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower and kale.  The cruciferous are rich in a variety of compounds which may slow cancer growth and development in humans. The indole-3-carbinol (indoles) are linked to the anti-carcinogenic effects.   Cabbage contains high levels of antioxidants known as polyphenols and anthocyanins.   They protect against oxidative stress in the brain and Alzheimer's disease.   Cabbage is low in calories (only20 calories in a cup), high in vitamins K and C and a good source of fibre, vitamin B6, folate, and manganese.   Red cabbage has 3 times as much vitamin C as green.  

Above are pretty, young red cabbage and broccoli in my garden in June.

Visit my 2011 class calendar which has been updated with new theme dinners,  gluten free  and healthy cooking classes.

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Tastefully yours,

© Nancy Guppy, RD, MHSc

Visit me at www.chapmanslanding.com 

Red Cabbage & Carrot Salad Indian-style

Both red cabbage and carrots are in season right now. I used them to make this simple and satisfying salad that is full of immune boosting fruits and vegetables! Eating a variety of fruits and vegetables makes it less likely you will catch a cold or the flu. An adult female should eat at least 3.5 cups (875 ml) or 7 or more half-cup servings every day (for men this is 8)!

Try this salad as a nice change from traditional coleslaw or "cold slop" as my nephew Ryan called it when he was four. It is reminiscent of the carrot and raisin salad that was popular when I was growing up. The recipe is Indian inspired and was first made as part of my "Tikka and Tandoori" cooking class. The addition of nuts is a suggestion I incorporated from a class participant.

Makes 8 x 1/2 cup - 125 ml servings

4 cups (1000 ml) cabbage, red, raw, shredded
2 cups (500 ml) carrots, grated
3 Tbsp (45 ml) candied ginger, raisins and/or dried sour cherries
1/4 cup (60 ml) slivered almonds
2 Tbsp (30 ml) dark brown sugar - demerara
1 cup (250 ml) sour cream, organic, light
2 Tbsp (30 ml) lemon juice, freshly squeezed - juice from 1/2 small lemon
1/2 tsp (2.5 ml) black pepper, freshly ground 


Optional: chili powder or fresh minced red hot chile!  Most of us have Mexican style chili powder in our cupboard and this would work fine.  So does powdered cayenne if you prefer a bit more heat. I usually make it with just the black pepper.


METHOD:
1. Shred red cabbage and grate carrots. Mix with raisins (and/or dried candy ginger, sour cherries) and slivered almonds. Slice larger pieces of ginger into smaller pieces.

2. Stir together sour cream, fresh lemon juice, dark brown sugar and freshly ground black pepper. Add to vegetables and mix well. Chill and serve. 

NUTRITION FACTS (per 125 ml serving): 110 calories, 5 grams of fat, 2 g saturated fat, 10 mg cholesterol, 55 mg sodium, 15 g carbohydrate, 2 g fibre, 3 g protein. %Daily Values are 90% vitamin A, 50% vitamin C, 8% calcium and 4% iron. Percent daily values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

© Nancy Guppy, RD, MHSc
Visit me at www.chapmanslanding.com
for course information, menus and registration.

Sorrel & Lovage Soup with Carrot Mint Puree

This is not the prettiest looking soup but the contrast amongst the various flavours more than makes up for the appearance.

Sorrel and lovage are hardy, spring perennials and ones you can rely on to eat early. Sorrel has a unique sour taste that is refreshing in soup. If you don't have it you can still make this soup using another green like kale, spinach or Swiss chard. Lovage usually replaces celery but in smaller amounts as it has a stronger flavour.

This recipe makes 8 large servings - about 2 cups/500 ml each

1 Tbsp olive oil - 15 ml
1 onion, red, large, chopped
4 cups sorrel leaves, shredded - 1 liter
4 cups potatoes, diced - 1 liter
1/2 cup lovage, sliced (substitute celery) - 125 ml
1 bay leaf
8 cups vegetable broth, preferably home-made - 2 liters
1/2 tsp salt - 2.5 ml
1/2 tsp pepper - 2.5 ml

Carrot Mint Puree:
2 cups carrots, diced - 500 ml
2 cups vegetable broth - 500 ml
2 Tbsp garden mint, minced - 30 ml

Garnish: 1/2 cup chives, minced - 125 ml
1. Saute diced onions in olive oil over medium-high heat for approximately 5 minutes. Use a soup pot that has a lid. Then add the shredded sorrel, diced potatoes, sliced lovage and bay leaf and saute another few minutes. Add broth, cover and cook until the potatoes are tender.
2. Meanwhile make the carrot puree - cook diced carrots in broth in a small pot. Puree and season with finely minced gardent mint. Set aside.
3. Remove the soup from the heat and puree half of the soup. Return to heat and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. If you use a commercial vegetable broth you might not need the salt. Home-made is best!
4. To serve, ladel soup in bowl and place a scoop of the the carrot puree in the centre. Garnish each bowl with freshly snipped chives.

Optional additions: dill, garlic, oregano and/or rosemary. You can substitute lettuce, spinach or Swiss chard for all or some of the sorrel. Add a dollop of sour cream or yogurt as a garnish.

NUTRITION FACTS: 140 calories, 5 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 520 mg sodium, 26 g carbohydrate, 6 g fibre, 6 g sugar, 5 g protein. %Daily Values are 180% vitamin A, 60% vitamin C, 8% iron and 15% calcium.

© Nancy Guppy, RD, MHSc
http://nancyguppy.com/