Servings: 6
Source: MFit
Ingredients
1 ⅓ cups water
1 ½ cups v-8 vegetable juice (or 2, 5.5 oz cans)
1 ½ cups brown and wild rice, or your favorite brown rice blend
4 ounces diced green chilies (1 can)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3 large red bell peppers, cut in half lengthwise, seed pods removed, stem ends intact
15 ounces black beans, cooked (1 can) drained and rinsed
2 cups tomato salsa, no added salt, medium hot, or to your taste
6 Tablespoons reduced fat cheddar cheese, shredded (or Mexican Blend)
Sea salt and pepper, as desired
Olive oil spray, to oil baking dish and spritz pepper tops
Preparation
- In a medium saucepan, combine the water, v-8 juice, rice, chilies, and cumin. Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and allow to simmer for 35-40 minutes, or until rice is tender and liquid has absorbed.
- While rice is cooking, bring 2 inches of water to boil in a large saucepan fitted with a steamer basket. Steam prepared bell peppers, sitting cut side up, for 10 minutes. Drain off any accumulated juices, pop their stem end out with the help of a paring knife. Arrange in a single layer in a lightly oiled baking dish.
- When rice is cooked, fold in the black beans and tomato salsa, taste and add salt and pepper as desired. Spoon mixture into prepared bell peppers. Top each pepper with one tablespoon of the cheese, spritz with olive oil spray and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until heated through. Cooking time will be shorter (more like 20 minutes) if the stuffing is warm when the peppers go in the oven.
Nutrition Information (per serving):
318 calories (11% calories from fat), 3.7 grams fat, (1 gram sat. fat), 12 grams protein, 58 grams carbohydrate, 9 grams dietary fiber, 5 mg cholesterol, 640 mg sodium, 156 mg calcium
Tips
- Waiting to remove the stem ends of the peppers after they have steamed makes the job easier, and less likely to damage the end of the pepper. The rice/salsa mixture will yield 6 generous cups; enough to fill 6 large bell pepper halves, or 8 medium-size ones.