Stuffed Peppers, Grain-Free & Vegan-Style

I love stuffing my bell peppers, and those neat little ones you find at farmer’s markets are great!  Good eating size!  Just adapt the below accordingly if you have bell peppers of size.  At any rate, why always use meat?  Here’s a recipe using mushrooms as the base, instead.

Mushroom stuffed pepper

5 large white mushrooms, the type typically sold as “stuffing mushrooms”,  diced as finely as you have patience for. (If the stems have gone yukky, remove stems and add an additional mushroom.)
1 small onion, diced as finely as you have patience for.
1 teaspoon fennel seed (I made mine heap…  I love that sausage ambiance in my stuffed peppers!)
Cherry or grape tomatoes — 10 or 12, sliced in half
1 tablespoon coconut (or olive) oil
Sea salt/Himalayan pink salt, one pinch.
Ground pepper, to taste
1 heaping teaspoon oregano.  If you have fresh, just chop up a bundle of leaves to taste.
Ground chipotle powder (without salt), to taste — I did a couple of pinches)
3 small bell peppers for stuffing
Optional:  coarsely chopped cilantro leaves for garnish, after.

Preheat oven 350 F.

In a saute fry pan, melt the coconut oil (if not already melted due to hot temperatures in summer….seriously, I wish they’d have a bottle of coconut oil to pour from, for summertime users as well as the jar for wintertime scoopers…)

Heat medium high, add the fennel seeds. Let them cook a minute or two.

Add the onion/mushrooms, salt and pepper. Stir them around five-six minutes.

Add the cherry/grape tomatoes. Stir them around with the other stuff another five minutes.

Add the oregano and the optional chipotle. Mix another minute.

Stuff your bell peppers. I split them in half, and remove stems and seeds, making little bell pepper boats, rather than the top-down stuffing method, but each to their own.  This should stuff three small bell peppers. (Six halves.)

Ready for the oven

Bake for about 20 minutes.  Ideally, serve with a tossed salad.  Three bell peppers of the size depicted will serve two to three people, depending on the rest of the meal.  (Salad as a side, prepped easily while the pepper boats are cooking?)