Halloween Stuffed Peppers (Vomiting Jack-o-Lanterns)
It’s time for the spooky, the scary, the gore and the horror- it’s almost Halloween! And for the occasion, we’ve whipped up a batch of Halloween stuffed peppers. These peppers are carved to look like jack-o-lanterns, and are filled with a beautiful, mushy, tasty mess of rice, lentils and TVP. They have the added (sort of gross) feature of “vomiting” their filling if you push down gently on the crusty top of the pepper. Most of the time I really wouldn’t tout that as a feature, but it’s Halloween! Let’s play with our food a little.
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It’s Halloween Season!
Horray! One of my favorite jobs I ever had was working in a Haunted house. I had different characters, from a small zombie child dragging around a bloodied stuffed toy to a witch making her potions, and even participated in a witch hanging show. I may not spend much time leering out of the fog created by a fog machine anymore, but it’s great to get a little of my creepy acting skills in every now and then. Plus, it’s the fall of Stay at Home, so what else am I going to do if not sinisterly holding a knife in front of my camera while squeezing the guts out of tomatoes. The video I made is a little further down on the page, hope you give it a watch!
If creepy gore isn’t so much your thing, keep in mind that these are in fact just stuffed peppers. You could give yours a cute little pumpkin faces, and you could even refrain from making yours look like their puking. You would be wrong, but you could just make a nice stuffed pepper.
Got Peppers? Make one of these pepper recipes!
- Burmese Tofu, Pepper Sauce, & Cashew Cheese
- Sesame Blistered Shishito Peppers
- Roasted Red Pepper Vegan Paella
- Vegan Dip with Roasted Peppers and Pumpkin Seeds
- Vegetarian Stuffed Bell Peppers with Israeli Couscous
- Baked Chile Relleno Cornbread Casserole
- Ooey-Gooey Baked Vegan Jalapeño Poppers
Visual Learner? Check out our Halloween Stuffed Peppers Video!
Truth be told, this video is more entertaining than it is informative, but it’s very much worth a watch. Make sure to turn on your sound to get the whole Halloween effect!
Making Halloween Stuffed Peppers
The great thing about this recipe is that it’s really easy to get it done, so you can whip it up for a weeknight dinner if you like. To make the filling, cook the rice, lentils and TVP together (if you don’t have TVP, feel free to just double the rice). Once it’s done, sauté it up with some onion, garlic, tomato, mushrooms, and spices to make the filling. Chop of the top and remove the seeds, then use a sharp knife to cut the faces into your pepper jack-o-lanterns. Remember, the smaller the holes you make, the less likely they are to collapse- but if they do collapse don’t worry. This is Halloween, they could be jack-o-lanterns that have been out on the porch for a few days! Place them in a lightly greased dish, and cook for about an hour so the peppers soften and the top becomes nice and crispy. And bon appetite!
Halloween Stuffed Peppers (AKA Vomiting Jack-o-Lanterns)
Ingredients
- ¾ cup dried split red lentils
- ¼ cup dried white rice
- ¼ cup dry TVP
- ½ red onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ cup chopped oyster mushrooms
- 1 large tomato, chopped into small pieces
- Olive oil, for cooking
- 2 tbsp. nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tsp. dried thyme
- ½ tsp. oregano
- ½ tsp. cumin powder
- ¼ cup sweet corn kernels
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 4 large orange bell peppers
Instructions
- First rinse the rice a few times to remove excess starch, then combine the lentils, rice, and TVP in a medium-sized saucepan, and cover with 3 cups of water. Bring up to a boil, then reduce the heat and cover until all the water is absorbed.
- While the lentils are cooking, preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Next heat some oil in a large skillet. Add the onion, and sauté until softened. Then add the garlic and mushrooms, cooking for 2-3 minutes before adding the tomatoes. After a couple more minutes, add the cooked lentil mixture, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, herbs, and corn. Season with salt and pepper, and stir well to combine. Turn off the heat.
- Prepare your peppers. First make sure they are able to stand upright, and if needed cut the bottom of the pepper to be level (making sure not to cut all the way through the pepper). Cut the top of the pepper with the stem off, and scoop out the seeds and inside bits. Next use a sharp paring knife to carve a jack-o-lantern face in each pepper. Try to keep the features small, as the larger the holes the more likely it is your pepper will collapse.
- Lightly grease a glass baking dish. Fill each of your peppers with the filling, heaping the filling over the top. Place in the preheated oven and bake for about an hour, so the peppers have softened and the filling on top becomes crunchy. Serve warm, and enjoy!
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