Stuffed Peppers

These turned out SO WELL.  I made a version of these about two years ago using texturized vegetable protein or TVP (post on that soon) and followed a recipe - they were just okay.  This one I created out of my very own little head, and turned out to be AMAZING. I'm actually incredibly proud of this one, so let's get to it:

1 small onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
6 peppers of varying colours, tops sliced off and insides removed - dice the pepper bits from the tops
1 block extra firm organic tofu (firm should be fine)
1-2 tsp oregano
.5-1 tsp cayenne
1-2 tsp dried basil
.5 tsp turmeric
1 can/jar pickled jalapenos, diced
1 cup uncooked brown rice
14 oz diced tomatoes
cheese - either vegan Daiya, regular cheddar or mozzarella
salt and pepper to taste

Put 1 cup raw brown rice on to cook. This will result in approximately 3+ cups of cooked rice.  I cooked mine in vegetarian "chicken flavoured" stock for extra flavour.  Preheat oven to 350F.

Finely dice all the veggies (onion, celery, garlic, pepper tops) and saute in olive oil until tender, then add the tofu, which has been diced and mashed with a potato masher to the texture of ground beef.  Saute all together until the tofu starts to stick to the pan and brown.  Add spices and diced tomatoes to taste, cook for another few minutes.  Add cooked rice until you get the desired texture. Measurements are not exact, but I'd say I added about half the rice that was cooked, until it looked like this:

Add the chopped jalapenos then taste again for spices/flavour, adding more or less, to your tastes.  I used about 2/3 of the can of jalapenos from the brand/picture below, which I think MADE this dish.  I think any pickled jalapenos (the ones you can put on your sandwich at Subway) will work just fine. We always keep them in the house. This particular brand had slices of pickled onions and carrots inside, too, all very spicy.

When you're happy with the taste of the filling, fill prepared peppers halfway full, then put in a layer of shredded cheese to cover the filling. Fill the rest of the peppers up with the filling, then top with cheese again.  Bake for anywhere between 30 min to an hour, depending on your oven.  I cooked ours for about 45 minutes, and they could have used maybe another 5 minutes or so as the outsides were still a bit too crisp for our tastes.

Yes, that's a Pilsner beer in the back.  Don't judge. We were watching hockey.

I had leftover filling (maybe three peppers' worth?) and rice after this. Froze the rice for future dishes, and we bought more peppers yesterday to have the leftovers for dinner tonight, this time switching up the cheese.

Enjoy!