Turkey & Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

~Jackie~

I recently went on an amazing trip to New York City and my favorite way to explore all the different parts of the city was by eating the different cuisines. The city was incredible and bright, but unfortunately it was cold and windy most of the weekend, so when I returned to Colorado I was pleasantly surprised with a lovely 80 degree sunny day. I decided to celebrate this by going to the pool and getting in my first suntan of the year; and after a weekend of drinking and eating five (amazing) meals a day, you can imagine how I felt in my swim suit… This inspired me to make this delicious, low-carb, low-fat dinner and I even had some leftover filling to make turkey and quinoa burritos that I froze for lunches for the week. This meal is packed full of vegetables and protein and it’s a perfect meal for getting ready for all those summer bikini days. Happy Spring!

By the time I’m done with work and have gone to the gym it’s already 7pm and I’m starving, so I’m all about saving time where I can when cooking dinner. A lot of stuffed pepper recipes require you to bake, boil, or roast your peppers before hand which seems like a waste and consumption of time. This recipe is great because the peppers steam right in the pan with a little vegetable stock added to the bottom, and you still get that crispy cheesy on top from broiling them for a few minutes at the end of the baking time. The ground turkey, however, does need to be cooked prior to stuffing the peppers, but this only takes about 10 minutes and you saute it with the onion, garlic, and jalapeno for added flavor. 

This recipe is Mexican inspired, but with a few twists. I really appreciate the sweetness corn gives to dishes, but I’m not a huge fan of canned or frozen corn so I decided to omit the corn and used fresh diced mango chunks instead. This gave the peppers just the perfect amount of sweetness to tone down the spice of the chilies and jalapeno. I like to make the quinoa a few hours or days before hand so it’s ready when I want to quickly pull the dish together. A lot of stuffed pepper dishes call for rice as the main filler, but I find that quinoa is a much healthier and tastier alternative. The dish is very colorful and makes for a beautiful presentation and it is best served hot out of the oven with avocado chunks and fresh cilantro (even add some plain greek yogurt for a cool and creamy bite)!