Stuffed Pepper

One small pepper can hold it all: grains, protein, veggies. More specifically, the stuffing includes Israeli couscous, lentils, tomato, and shiitake mushrooms. It was a very yummy combination. The recipe comes from Vegan Cooking for One, and is one of the slightly complicated Sunday dinner recipes. There are several different steps including cooking the lentils and couscous, softening the pepper in some hot water, and cooking the veggie mixture and seasoning it, before everything can actually be assembled and baked. I think next time I'd add more veggies and less couscous/lentils so those flavors come through a little more.

Aztec Couscous

What a great book Short-Cut Vegan is, by Lorna Sass. I don't mind spending a long time cooking but it sure is nice sometimes to be able to throw things together quickly. Most of the recipes in the book take under 30 minutes to make. The estimated time for the couscous was 25.

I chose to make the recipe using Israeli couscous rather than regular couscous. Israeli couscous is wonderful. It's a larger grain than the typical version and I think it's much more fun. This recipe is so fast and so easy. Cook the couscous, open a can of black beans, throw in some thawed frozen corn, and whip up the spice mixture. Voila, dinner super fast.

I added a lot of extra spice since I didn't have jalapeno peppers. The spice mixed with fresh lime juice gave the dish quite a bite.