Holiday Stuffed Peppers

  November 20, 2011  |    Blog

If you’re heading to a holiday party and don’t want to get stuck eating all unhealthy, high calorie dishes, why not bring your own healthy side? Hosts usually welcome an extra dish to add to a buffet, and this will ensure you won’t be filling up only on junk food.

Here is one of our favorite fall holiday party recipes – stuffed peppers. Try it the next time you need to whip up a healthy side dish.

Ingredients:

  • 6 large bell peppers
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 small sweet onion, chopped
  • 1 10-oz package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
  • 1 tbsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice
  • 2 cups cooked couscous
  • 1 cup chickpeas
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tomato, chopped
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • 1 cup raisins
  • ½ cup crumbled low-fat feta cheese

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
  2. Place raisins in a bowl of hot water for 5 minutes, or until plump. Drain.
  3. Slice off the tops of the peppers to make lids. Scoop out the insides of the peppers and discard.
  4. In a large saucepan of boiling water, simmer the peppers and lids, covered, for 5 minutes. Drain.
  5. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic, onion and spinach. Saute for 2 minutes. Stir in lemon juice. Cook for 1 minute, then remove from heat.
  6. Stir in couscous, chickpeas, oregano, salt, pepper and raisins. Mix in the feta cheese.
  7. Fill each pepper with the couscous mixture. Place upright in a shallow baking dish. Cover with the pepper tops.
  8. Bake until the filling is heated through, about 20 minutes.

If you are making these for a larger party, use mini bell pepper instead of large bell peppers. This will give you a much larger yield and the dish will be more of a finger food type of appetizer.

What’s you’re favorite healthy holiday party recipe?

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