Yield: 4 servings
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, cut into small-medium dice
3-4 large cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
Coarse sea or kosher salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 box Silken firm tofu
juice of one-half to a whole small-medium lemon (start with one-half)
1 can artichoke hearts, drained (or 8 frozen-thawed or fresh artichoke hearts)
1/2-1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves to taste
pinch paprika or more to taste
Garnish: lemon zest, fresh thyme sprigs, lemon wedges or slices and/or a sprinkling of paprika
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil a small baking dish or 4 small au gratin dishes. In a large cast iron skillet over medium-high, heat olive oil to shimmering. Add onion and saute, stirring frequently, until softened. Add garlic and a pinch of salt and pepper and continue sauteing and stirring until mixture is golden brown. I like to add just a little water to speed up the process and remove caramelized bits from the bottom of the pan. Place tofu in bowl of food processor fitted with a metal blade and process with lemon juice and nutritional yeast until smooth. Add remaining filling ingredients and pulse until artichokes are chopped and all ingredients are well combined. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Fill each pepper half with one-fourth of filling. Bake for 20 minutes or until filling is hot through and fairly set. Remove from oven and insert stem into filling near where it naturally grew. (I don’t leave them on during baking lest they burn.) Sprinkle each with lemon zest and serve immediately with fresh thyme sprigs, lemon wedges or slices, and/or a sprinkling of paprika.
November 14, 2009 at 2:55 am
This is calling my name! I love everything in here, artichokes, nooch, thyme, what a beautiful combination of flavors. Thank you so much for this great recipe and for sharing such a beautiful photo.
November 14, 2009 at 3:50 am
Oh, I'm so glad. I've never heard the term "nooch," but love it! Between it and pureed white beans, there's not much need for even vegan sour cream and cream cheese in our diets, is there?
We've had a nor'easter here for the last three days with widespread flooding, high winds and power outages. But I photographed in natural light anyway and couldn't believe that my dear little digi camera–it's practically a point and shoot–captured the glistening moistness of the pepper.
Enjoy!
November 15, 2009 at 3:43 pm
You are so amazing, Betsy! That looks beautiful AND delicious!
November 15, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Back at 'cha, Trinity! I just realized, with horror, that I didn't have Haiku Tofu on my blog roll, but I do now. And, I changed my type of blog roll listing so that now I can include not only links, but recent posts, snippets and, if the blog allows it, thumbnails.
I appreciate your feedback; I was afraid the pepper looked a little "slumped," but they do soften up in cooking, but they're still toothsome, not limp. 🙂
Thanks!
November 15, 2009 at 6:00 pm
You know I tried stuffed peppers over and over again but I never found a recipe I liked.This is one for the holidays. I LOVE LOVE artichokes..how do u come up with such great recipes..no I am not just saying that seriously.. I am catching up on blogs as I have been super busy. I have many post to read now
November 15, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Your ears or eyes must have been burning, as I was just telling another vegan food blogger how much I admire your beautiful photos.
My mom used to do a nice stuffed pepper that called for rice and such, but she used green peppers and I'm not so wild about them. I should ask for her recipe and try it with yellow, red or orange ones.
Anyway, I'm so glad mine appealed to you. You have some amazing recipes (and photos, as I've said) yourself! But thank you all the same.
Once again, I was having oral surgery that day–a touch-up to the previous one that was no touch-up! 'lemme tell you–and needed something soft. I was a fan of that cheesy hot artichoke dip when I was a vegetarian, but I don't even want to think about the calories. So I knew I could lighten it up enough using tofu to actually have a fairly large portion of it without all the guilt. So that's pretty much what I did.
Plus, you're right, the red and green is nice for the holidays, no? Have a happy one, by the way!