If you don’t know by now capsicums are one of my favourite vegetables, specifically roasted, and these mexican stuffed capsicums are the perfect way to get my fix. These are roasted to bring out all that delicious sweet capsicum flavour and filled with a Mexican inspired filling consisting of black beans, corn and a bunch of spices. Quite often when I’ve seen recipes for some kind of stuffed vegetable the main “stuffing” ingredient is rice. I wanted to stay away from rice due to its high carb content, I went with black beans instead. They are high in fibre and protein and much lower carb. Beans are super good for you and an essential part of your diet and most people don’t eat enough of them. Before I stopped eating meat I admit I barely ate beans but now I eat them all the time. They are full of fibre, they have lots of protein which means they’ll keep you fuller for longer so you’ll be more likely to eat a smaller portion or won’t be hunting for snacks later on, they can lower cholesterol and improve heart health, as well as having lots of iron and B vitamins. I could go on. Also did you know that high fibre foods can help to lower blood sugar levels? So perfect for diabetics! As you can see I didn’t really even need to think about swapping out rice for beans.
For one serve, with the side salad included it’s about 24g of carbs. And the best part is this meal is still super filling and really tasty. As well as being on the lower carb end, this meal is of course also vegan as well as gluten-free!
This recipe includes a side salad to go with the mexican stuffed capsicums which is made up of avocado, cherry tomatoes, red onion, lime and coriander, keeping with the Mexican theme. This is of course optional and if it isn’t your jam or you’d just prefer something else (or no side at all) then feel free to leave this off the menu.
Capsicums can be pretty expensive which is really frustrating, but if you look for the Pick of the Crop pre packaged capsicums they actually work out a bit cheaper. The capsicums themselves are often smaller but you could always add one or two more to this recipe if they are particularly small.
Top the capsicums with dairy free cheese 10 minutes before they’re due to come out of the oven, this will ensure the cheese doesn’t burn. I used Angel Food Mozzarella Alternative (pretty much my go to) but you can use whatever brand and type you like.
If you’re a capsicum fiend like me, you might like to try my roasted capsicum and tomato soup
Ingredients
- Avocado and Tomato Salad
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180℃
- Dice onion and garlic
- Heat a pan to medium with about 1 tbsp oil (my go to is olive oil)
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Cook onion and garlic until the onion is translucent
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Add the spices to the pan - cumin, coriander, paprika and chilli. Cook for a further minute before adding the black beans and tomato paste.
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Once the black beans and tomato paste are mixed through, add the corn and cook for a few more minutes until warm.
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Add grated carrot, cook for 2 more mins then turn the heat off. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Cut each capsicum in half from top to bottom and deseed.
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Lay the capsicum halves flat on an oven tray and fill with the bean mix.
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Bake in the oven for 20mins, then remove and add the grated cheese before returning to the oven for a final 10mins.
- Meanwhile, while the capsicums are in the oven make the avocado and tomato salad.
- Chop the cherry tomatoes in half, slice the avocado into 2cm cubes and finely slice the onion, then put into a bowl.
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Squeeze in lime juice, add fresh coriander leaves and season with salt and pepper. Gently stir to combine.
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Once capsicums are done, remove from the oven and serve while warm with the avocado and tomato salad.
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