Happy Hump Day!
Since I’ve been buying ground turkey in bulk at Costco, I’ve been on a roll coming up with different ways to prepare it. I used to just make meatloaf and burgers, but after awhile that gets pretty old, so I decided to make some stuffed bell peppers yesterday. I cooked them in my slow-cooker since I had an appointment in the late afternoon and wouldn’t be back until dinner time.
In the past, I’ve made stuffed peppers using quinoa, brown rice and “riced” cauliflower, but yesterday I used a new grain called freekeh (at least new to me!), that I kindly received from Freekeh Foods and Kid Kritics. They turned out great and putting them in myslow-cooker made things even easier!
Freekeh is roasted green wheat and is an ancient grain that was eaten in the middle east over 2,000 years ago.
The texture is chewy, and somewhere between brown rice and oatmeal. It made a wonderful filling with the ground turkey for my peppers!
It smells wonderful and it cooks in about the same time as making brown rice. Freekeh Foods offers three different flavors of freekeh: original (no spices or flavors added), which I made, rosemary sage and tamari. You can use freekeh for pretty much anything you would use rice, quinoa, couscous, barley, farro or oats for. It can be adapted to any cuisine or meal. Also, the nutrition stats are really good: 130 calories per serving, 6 grams of protein, 4 grams of fiber, 26 carbs and 1 gram of fat, comparable to quinoa.
Let’s get right to the recipe, shall we?
Ingredients
- 3 bell peppers washed, seeds and tops removed
- 10 oz. ground turkey
- 3/4 cup cooked freekeh
- 1 yellow onion (diced)
- 1 clove of garlic (minced)
- 1 handful of fresh basil (chopped)
- 1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp garlic salt
- 2 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
- 2 tbsp olive oil + additional for coating inside of slow-cooker
Instructions
- In a large pan, caramelize onions with the garlic. Add ground turkey and cook until slightly brown.
- Add sun dried tomatoes and seasonings. Cook for 2-3 minutes and remove from heat.
- Add freekeh, basil and 3/4 cup of cheese to turkey; mix well.
- Grease your slow-cooker with a little olive oil, making sure to cover the sides as well as the bottom.
- Scoop turkey mixture into each bell pepper and sprinkle the remainder of cheese on top of each one.
- Place peppers in slow-cooker.*You may need to add some crumpled aluminum foil to make sure peppers can stand up.
- Cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6 hours.
- Serve immediately and enjoy with your favorite green salad!
Notes
If you don't have a slow-cooker, you can bake the peppers in the oven at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until cheese is brown and slightly bubbly.
Since it’s Wednesday, I’m joining Jenn at Peas and Crayons for What I Ate Wednesday. Be sure to head on over to her blog for all of her delicious eats!
Question:
Have you heard of freekeh? If so, how have you prepared it?
REMINDER: Don’t forget to enter a chance to win a jar of almond butter from Paleo Sweet Tooth! Giveaway ends Monday, Feb. 10th! To enter, click here.
I’ve never heard of Freekeh but the peppers look awesome and I love crock pot recipes!!
I hadn’t heard of it either, but it is now becoming one of my favorite grains!
I’ve never heard of Freekeh before – but seeing that I’m in the Middle East were it originated from – I’ll have to look around for it 🙂
Yes, it’s SO good! You’ll love it!
I’ve never heard of Freekeh but it sounds and looks amazing! I’m all about trying new things in the crockpot and even more-so trying to stuff things into peppers!
It’s REALLY good! Cooking the peppers in the crockpot made dinner so much easier. I’m definitely going to do that again!
This freekeh sounds good, I wonder if it is similar to bulgar? I haven’t tried putting my stuffed peppers in the slow cooker yet, but that would be a good idea. I made my first slow cooker meal last night that I prepared for after baby arrived, it was SO easy!
Yes, it’s pretty similar to bulgar. It’s so easy to throw them into the slow-cooker and forget about it. They come out so tender. I’ve been wanting to make some freezer meals before this baby arrives. I’m hoping to make some this weekend (granted the baby doesn’t come!).