Stuffed Peppers with Black Beans, CousCous, Corn & Mushrooms

This is going to be my first attempt to make stuffed peppers. I never have used the ingredient like this before, but of course I've seen it done a million times. 

I think this is really clever doing a 'south west meets middle eastern'  take on the idea. Especially since I'm turning this into a vegetarian dish. I'm always looking for really awesome (easy ) things to make vegetarian. My sister in law who spends a lot of time with us is vegetarian, as well as some really close friends we frequently have dinner with. 

Ingredients:

• 3 Bell peppers halved and gutted
• Any chopped up innards salvaged from peppers
• 1 1/2 cup cooked cous cous
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1 onion diced
• 1 big handful drained, rinsed, canned black beans
• 1 big handful drained canned diced tomatoes
• 1 cup canned corn
• minced garlic
• salt
• pepper
• oregano
• paprika
• garlic powder
• chili powder
• red pepper flakes

Start off by blanching the peppers for a few minutes in boiling water to soften. Since everything is going to be cooked when we fill and bake the peppers, we just want them softened so they completely cook when we bake them.

Next prepare your couscous according to directions, and set aside.

Next we are going to prepare the filling. Start by sautéing the onions, peppers left over, and garlic- to soften about 5 minutes.

Then add the mushrooms and cook until softened.

       

                      
Next add the corn, tomatoes and black beans along with the seasonings mentioned above. I just usually do a little dash of each just to flavor

Finally add in the couscous you have set aside

Put the blanched peppers in a baking dish

Fill them up ( I thought I was going to have way to much filling but I filled those bad boys up and it ended up being a perfect amount) & Top with cheese

And bake at 350 for about 15 minutes, or until the cheese is completely melted.

Garnish with Cilantro, Green and Red onions, and some Sour Cream.

This meal came out amazing. I sliced the mushrooms big so that would be almost like the 'meat' of the dish, since there is none. And by slicing the peppers in half and leaving them open faced, rather than cutting the top off and stuffing them like typical stuffed peppers, makes a lot more. 

I used large cans of tomatoes, corn and black beans. I would say you can get small cans of each and this would be a perfect amount for the 3 peppers sliced in half. I had a lot of left overs so what I did is made a black bean and corn salsa, with the left overs from the cans and some red onion and cilantro. I will be able to keep this in the fridge and use this for a few different things over the next few days. Even though there was a lot left over from this dish, it will not go to waste in this house!

Credits:

Black bean and Couscous stuffed Peppers