Recipe: Vegan Stuffed Taco Peppers

I work in marketing. I appreciate that Facebook is constantly trying to find ways to serve up content to its users. Autoplay videos are pretty much all I see these days (in addition to random people going "live"), and once in awhile, one of them will catch my eye and I won't just scroll past it.

I scrolled upon a decent seeming, but not vegan recipe by Tasty, one of Buzzfeed's content hubs for short, to the point recipe videos. Often described as "too fast moving," in the comments, these videos are meant to be watched real quick just to give someone a general idea of how to make a recipe. I think this applies to all of the visual learners out there.

In the past couple days, I think I've seen a Tasty video on how to make "stuffed taco peppers" about 8 million times, and even though the recipe wasn't vegan, I knew I could easily make it so. I made these for dinner the other night and I have to say, they were pretty incredible.

Vegan Stuffed Taco Peppers

Ingredients:

• 4 red peppers
• 1 bag Boca crumbles
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1/2 can black beans
• 1/2 cup rice (cooked)
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• 1 jar chunky salsa
• 1 packet vegan taco seasoning mix
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup cheddar style vegan cheese (I used Daiya) plus more for sprinkling on top 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Cut off the tops/de-seed the peppers
3. Place peppers in a baking dish and bake for 20 minutes - set aside to cool once done
4. While peppers are baking, pour Boca crumbles into skillet set to medium/high heat.
5. Add taco seasoning packet and 2/3 cup water to the Boca mixture and stir, allowing some of the water to evaporate
6. Add diced onion and stir frequently 
7. Add jar of salsa, black beans, frozen corn, and rice. Continue to stir and cook until almost all of the liquid has evaporated and the onions have softened 
8. Stir in as little or as much vegan cheese as you'd like to the "meat" mixture - I used a handful, and that was plenty
9. Next, stuff the peppers with the taco filling mixture - be sure to fill them a little over the top
10. Sprinkle cheese on top and bake for at least 20 minutes (the original recipes says to cook "until the cheese melts) but you could wait hours for your Daiya to melt)
11. Optional: top with guacamole and/or vegan sour cream (I used guac and skipped the sour cream)

I'm normally not THE biggest fan of Boca crumbles. I mean, I'll eat them, but..the combination of ingredients and the cheesiness of the taco filling was really good. (so good that I ate the leftover "meat" with a spoon as a leftover midnight snack) I'd also never thought to pre-bake my peppers before stuffing them, and that really seemed to speed up the process. (although I would have cooked my very large red peppers for about 10 more minutes if I hadn't been starving and running out of time)

This is a relatively quick, easy, tasty, and protein packed dinner that I know I'll be making again.