Easy mediterranean couscous stuffed peppers (vegan)

These couscous stuffed peppers are filled with perfectly seasoned vegetables and chickpeas in a smokey tomato sauce and topped with dairy free cheese. Super healthy, vegan and delicious weeknight dinner idea to impress the whole family or friends. 

❤️ Why you’ll love this recipe

• Made with healthy, whole food ingredients.
• Vegan, meatless, dairy free and absolutely delicious.
• Works as a great main dish or side dish for a potluck.
• Great to meal prep and have for lunch all week.
• Easy to make to impress guests at a dinner party. 

🍅 Ingredients & substitutions

These ingredients are really flexible. Interchange the vegetables, grains and beans with your favorites.

• Couscous – Fluffy couscous is the centerpiece in this recipe. I use the moroccan couscous, the smaller couscous, but you can also use Israeli couscous, which is also called pearl couscous and is a bit larger. Quinoa, white rice, brown rice, couscous, farro and barley are all good choices as a substitute. 
• Beans – Black beans, chickpeas, navy beans, great northern beans, red beans or kidney beans are all good choices. To keep with the mediterranean flavors, I prefer chickpeas or great northern beans. 
• Bell peppers – Orange peppers, yellow peppers and red bell peppers are the sweet bell peppers. Green bell peppers are a little more bitter, but taste good when baked.
• Tomatoes – canned tomatoes add nice flavor and moisture to the pepper stuffing. Cherry tomatoes also taste delicious in this.  
• Spices – We use a lovely mix of garlic powder, nutritional yeast, onion powder, smoked paprika (for a nice smoky flavor), thyme, oregano, salt, black pepper and fresh basil. If you want to add a little heat, use some red pepper flakes. You can also use Italian seasoning instead.
• Fresh garlic and red onion
• Olive oil
• Dairy free cheese – Vegan feta cheese or non-dairy mozzarella goes really well with this recipe. Topping these stuffed peppers with vegan parmesan is also delicious. Use whatever vegan cheese you can find at your grocery store. Chao and Violife are my favorite brands.
• Vegetable broth or vegetable stock
• Bonus points if you want to top this recipe with fresh cilantro, fresh parsley or whatever herb is your favorite topping.

👩‍🍳 Recipe tips

• This recipe works well with a leftover grain that you need to use up, like leftover rice.
• If you decide to stuff this with quinoa and need help cooking quinoa check out this guide on how to cook quinoa on the stovetop, pressure cooker, or rice cooker.
• Chop up all of the vegetables first, before you start cooking. This makes for a less stressful cooking experience. Everything goes in the pan at about the same time, so it’s good to have it all ready.
• Since vegan cheese can sometimes take a little longer to melt, when cooking the peppers, cover them for part of the way. This will help the cheese to melt faster.
• A baking dish or casserole dish with a lid is the best thing to use for this recipe. If you don’t have that, then just use aluminum foil to cover the peppers.

🔪 How to cut the peppers

• You can cut your peppers lengthwise, from top to bottom, into pepper halves. You can also just cut off the bell pepper tops and keep them as whole peppers, so they stand upright.  Either way works well.
• If you choose to cut off the tops of the peppers, take the stem out and dice up the pepper top. Add the diced pepper top into the large skillet when cooking the rest of the veggies, so it doesn’t go to waste.

🥄 Directions

Cook the couscous – Bring the vegetable broth to a low boil/simmer in a medium saucepan on medium-high heat. Remove from the heat and stir in the couscous and cover. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes. Then fluff it up with a fork. 

Prepare the veggies – Chop all the vegetables to have ready to go. Heat oil in a large sauté pan on medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and sauté. Add the rest of the vegetables, seasonings and tomatoes. Cook for about 5-10 minutes. 

Mix it together – Add the cooked couscous and vegetable mixture together, season more if needed and stir. Fold in some vegan feta cheese or  dairy free parmesan. 

Stuff the peppers – Cut the peppers in half from top to bottom and remove the seeds. Add them to a baking dish or dutch oven with ½ cup of water. Using a spoon, stuff each pepper with the couscous mixture. Top with more salty feta or vegan parmesan. 

Bake – Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 370 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes. Top with a fresh lemon juice or fresh basil. 

Variations

Add in some kalamata olives, toasted pine nuts or baby spinach. Capers would also taste great in this. You can add any meatless plant based meat as well like Beyond sausage, or vegan chorizo.

🥗 What to serve with stuffed peppers

These peppers go really well with a delicious side salad, especially topped with homemade Italian dressing or vegan ranch dressing. Serve with a side of seasoned rice, air fried asparagus or steamed vegetables. This also tastes amazing with some crusty homemade bread dipped in olive oil. This would also go well with a minestrone soup. 

❄️ Storing

The leftover peppers will last in an airtight container for up to five days.

These can also be frozen, but will change the texture of the peppers once they thaw out. They may become a little mushy. 

🍛 Leftover ideas

Warm up any leftover couscous mixture and top it on a nice salad, or eat it as a bowl for lunch. If you have leftover red peppers, cut them up into small pieces, warm them up and top on a salad. Store all leftovers in the fridge in a sealed container. 

❓ FAQ’s

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