Cheesy Stuffed Peppers (Vegan + Gluten Free)

OH Labor Day weekend. Sigh. But OH cheesy stuffed peppers that are vegan and gluten free. Yeah!

 

Just currently where my mind is at. I love fall – the sweater wearing, the apples pumpkins, the crisp air and bonfires…on the other side though, it is also produces in me this frenzied hurry, hurry, hurry get everything done before winter. As well as the kids are back to school, and while that means a quiet house to work in again, it also means all the fall busyness of homework and after school activities starts back up! Cue stress.

I hope you don’t take this wrong because I really do love all the fresh end of summer produce, yet I also get frantic about the abundance of late summer and early fall produce that suddenly needs to be processed.

 

In the last few weeks I have had dozens of corn, about 20 green peppers and a few dozen tomatoes that taunted me to do something with them every time I opened the fridge or dared to look at that space on my counter where they sat.

 

So one step at a time, and a free Saturday on the schedule, I dared to win my counter and fridge space back. The result? Lots of fresh tomato sauce, soup, corn blanched and frozen and these CHEESY STUFFED PEPPERS!

Do you like stuffed peppers? I honestly, had only made them once in my life that I can recall. And that was so long ago, I don’t even remember what they had in them or what they tasted like. I do recall that they took a little longer to make than your standard meal.

 

BUT with no fear in my mind and ahem those 20 peppers staring me down, I thought what a perfect way to use at least 3 of the peppers. Which I halved and then that made 6 servings! Plus, I needed a dish to take to a friend / family get together and I have really been trying to combine recipe making and testing with stuff already on my calendar! My time and calendar are just at that point in life right now.

 

Lots of yummy stuff! We have brown rice, lentils, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, onion, vegan cheese and a few herbs and spices.

 

I know it seems like a lot. BUT I challenge you to look in your fridge? Do you have some of these items already cooked? What could you sub into the stuffing that you do already have cooked? You don’t necessarily need to start from scratch!

 

But if you must start from scratch, the filling makes extra! I chose to put that around my peppers in the dish but you could just keep it in the fridge for another meal and now you have another meal prepped in your fridge! I call that winning at mealtime.

 

Also, I chose to make the Vegan Cheddar Cheese from Healthier Steps to use in the recipe. BUT you could buy vegan cheese at the store or omit it all together.

 

The spices used are on the mild side but feel free to turn up the heat by adding a pinch of chili pepper or cayenne pepper. One note though – do not leave out the smoked paprika! That makes these peppers outstanding!

I loved topping my peppers with our vegan tofu sour cream – this is optional but does make the perfect accompaniment, You can find our super easy vegan tofu sour cream recipe here.

 

And our friends – they loved them! So raving reviews from the test group means these are totally shareable with friends and family – they won’t even know they are healthy, vegan and gluten free!

 

If you make these cheesy stuffed peppers, we would love to know! Tag @badtothebowl on social media, we would love to see!