Gretchen Scalpi, RDN

Lately, I’m loving buckwheat!  The more I work with this grain, the more possibilities I see.  Recently our local farm market had red, yellow and orange peppers on sale at a great price!  I stocked up and and the first thing I made was stuffed red peppers.  I prepared the peppers and filling earlier in the day and put them in the crock pot on the low setting.  Instead of rice, I substituted buckwheat kasha, used ground white meat chicken instead of beef.  Making this was very easy and they were a nice change from the usual stuffed peppers.

Here’s my recipe:

Kasha Stuffed Peppers- Serves 4

3/4 cup buckwheat kasha

1 whole egg

1 Tb. tomato paste

1 1/2 cup low sodium chicken stock

1 Tb. olive oil

1/2 lb. ground white meat chicken

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 tsp. oregano

1/4 tsp. ancho pepper (or chili powder)

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp salt or to taste

4 red peppers, tops and seeds removed

2- 14 oz. diced tomatoes with green chiles (buy low sodium if you can!)

1. Prepare kasha using the dry cook method.  (I explained this method in my February 23rd post so you will want to review this again).  Using the dry cook method prevents the kasha kernels from sticking together.
2. Add low sodium chicken stock and tomato paste to the dry cooked buckwheat.     Quickly bring kasha and stock to a boil, cover, then simmer 7-10 minutes or until the liquid has been absorbed.  Set aside.
3. In a large skillet heat the olive oil, and add the ground chicken and chopped onion.  Cook for approximately 5 minutes.  Add seasoning to the chicken mixture.
4. Combine kasha and chicken.
5. Prepare red peppers by removing tops and all seeds.
6. Add stuffing to each hollowed out pepper.  Place peppers in crock pot.  Add canned diced tomatoes to peppers, spooning some of the diced tomatoes over the top of the peppers.
7. Cover & cook for at least 4 hours or until the peppers are tender.

Per Serving: 306 Cal  27 g Protein; 8 g Tot Fat; 35 g Carb; 6 g Fiber;

Tags: pepper recipe, peppers