I had a few random leftovers on hand after a taco Tuesday night at our house and I needed to come up with a delicious way to use up a half a can of black beans, some chopped peppers, and cooked rice. Cooked rice is always hard to use up the next day — unless you plan to put it into a soup or casserole — which is what I did here.
I ended up with a delicious recipe with Mexican flavors I'm calling not-so-stuffed peppers.
You really can mix up the vegetables and spices to your liking and it's such a forgiving recipe you can't mess it up.
Now get playing with ingredients and mix it up!
Here is what I used:
Vegetarian Not-So-Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients:
Casserole:
- 2 cups cooked rice
- 1/2 cup beans (we used black beans)
- 1/2 cup chopped green olives (black would be good too!)
- 1 cup chopped sweet peppers
- 1/2 cup shredded cheese
- 1/2 cup salsa
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3/4 cup vegetable stock (or any you have on hand)
- 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
- Salt and pepper to taste
Topping:
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs (we used Panko)
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- salt and pepper to taste
You can also use 2 tablespoons of taco seasoning in place of dried spices.
Add cooked ground beef, cooked shredded chicken, cooked shrimp, or even cooked fish for more protein!
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large glass baking dish, mix all casserole ingredients together.
- In a separate bowl, mix the dry topping ingredients together and sprinkle on top of the casserole.
- Drizzle olive oil evenly over the top.
- Put in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until heated through.
