Tempeh Stuffed Bell Peppers with Faux Bechamel Sauce
Peppers:
1/3 cup brown rice
2/3 cup water or stock
1/2 red onion, diced
6 crimini mushrooms, chopped
1 (8 ounce) package tempeh, crumbled
salt and pepper, to taste
oregano, to taste
savory, to taste
4 bell peppers, halved and de-seeded
1 (4-6") anaheim pepper, diced
1 can (15 ounces) fire roasted crushed tomatoes
1 small zucchini, chopped "Béchamel" Sauce:
2 1/2 tablespoons flour (white works best)
oil, as needed
2 tablespoons cashew butter
2 cups nondairy milk (I use soy)
1 tablespoon crushed garlic
white pepper, to taste
onion powder, to taste
1. Cook brown rice in water or stock, until done. For peppers, in a skillet, sauté the onions until beginning to soften. Add mushrooms and tempeh and cook until browned and mushrooms have released their liquid. Season with spices.
2. Add anaheim pepper and cooked rice, sauté for a few minutes. Add the can of tomatoes and mix thoroughly; remove from heat and add zucchini. Place halved peppers in a roasting pan and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Scoop filling equally into the 8 pepper halves and set aside.
3. For the sauce, in a sauce pan, combine the flour with enough oil to form a paste. Heat on medium heat until slightly bubbly. Add the cashew butter and whisk until smooth. Slowly stream and whisk in the milk. Add the garlic and seasonings, and cook until thickened.
4. Spoon 1/4 cup sauce on top of each pepper, cover the pan with foil, and bake 30-45 minutes, or until peppers have softened. Broil briefly to brown the sauce. Serve with additional sauce.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
This is a great recipe for those people who say vegan food is bland! Very tasty. I added about a half cup of Daiya mozzarella cheese substitute to the mix. Yum. I tried it once with almond butter instead of cashew butter. That was just okay.
I just made this again. I steamed the peppers for about 10 minutes before filling them and it worked much better. If you don't steam the peppers first they take a very long time to thoroughly soften and cook. I also decreased the cashew butter to 1 T. It was too strong before.
This is a great recipe....loved it!!! Thank you. ;)b
This is a great recipe for those people who say vegan food is bland! Very tasty. I added about a half cup of Daiya mozzarella cheese substitute to the mix. Yum. I tried it once with almond butter instead of cashew butter. That was just okay.
. Want to mention that you definitely need to get the largest peppers you can find (or get one extra) or you'll have some filling left over.
good call, i always assume everyone can find "the big ones"
Thanks for this recipe ... made it tonight and it's definitely a keeper ;)b. Had some unexpected company show up and it was a real hit! I added a little salt to the sauce and used rice milk instead of soy (trying to cut down on my soy intake), otherwise stuck pretty much to the recipe. I used four different color peppers - red, green, orange and yellow ... so it was visually very appealing. Want to mention that you definitely need to get the largest peppers you can find (or get one extra) or you'll have some filling left over.