Recipe: Taco-Style Stuffed Peppers

You guys, I may have just found my new favorite way to eat corn.  I’m all about seasonal produce, but for the dregs of winter when fresh corn isn’t available, I often reach for the frozen variety.  The problem is, frozen corn is usually pretty meh. Enter: Taco-Style Corn.

It’s a pretty basic method, but usually when I make tacos, I include onions and bell peppers for some extra veggies and taste. I sauté the onions and peppers together, and mix them into the meat later. That way, I can set aside some extra veggies for use in omelets and other dishes later in the week. This time, though, I tossed in some frozen corn at the very end of cooking the other veggies and wow. Something about the corn tossed in all those good pepper and onion juices is just delicious. The dish is more than the sum of its parts.

But wait, look at what I’m doing – I’m supposed to be talking about stuffed peppers here, and we’re giving all the praise to the corn. The stuffed pepper portion of this is pretty awesome too, and it’s a great way to get the flavor of tacos without the more processed carbs that come with taco shells.

Here’s what I suggest: make these veggies first and if you don’t eat them all in one sitting, you can add in some meat and make some stuffed peppers. And if you do eat all the veggies first, no worries. They’re good for you.

Taco-Style Stuffed Peppers

Yields: 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 4 bell peppers with tops removed and insides hollowed
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cups frozen corn
• ½ TBSP olive oil
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/2 TBSP Taco seasoning (I followed this taco seasoning recipe, omitting the red pepper flakes)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Heat olive oil in skillet over medium-low heat. Add in diced bell peppers, onions, and salt, then toss to coat.
3. Saute peppers and onions until the onions are fragrant and golden. Then toss in frozen corn and cook for 3 more minutes. Remove from heat.
4. Meanwhile, in a separate pan brown ground turkey over medium-high heat. When meat is no longer pink, drain excess fat, then stir in water and taco seasoning. Reduce heat to low and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. When meat and vegetables are both cooked, mix the veggies and taco meat. Then fill the 4 pepper cups with the mixture.  Lightly cover your baking dish with tin foil.
6. Bake for 25-35 minutes, until the pepper cups are tender. Remove from the oven and serve warm.

Optional: I made this dairy-free, but if you want some gooey, cheesy deliciousness up in here, remove the peppers from the oven 5 minutes before your timer goes off. Sprinkle on some shredded cheese, and pop the peppers back in the oven to melt the cheese.

Note: You could also make this a vegetarian dish by tossing the veggies into quinoa cooked in vegetable stock, in place of using turkey.