Italian Farro & Turkey Stuffed Peppers

Italian farro gives this a protein punch!

Ohhh farro, how I love thee! One of the greatest supermarket finds for me, was farro. It has a firm texture and I have found it to be the best replacements for rice or pasta to date. If you haven't heard of it, it's an ancient grain that packs in 7g protein, 5g dietary fiber & 170 calories per serving. One serving is 1/4C.  I decided to use it as a stuffing previously in large mushrooms and when my husband mentioned that we hadn't had stuffed peppers in a while, I thought this would make the perfect substitution for rice. My beef (or lack thereof) with peppers is that I'm not a huge fan of them cooked. I don't like them soggy. I always say, I love my vegetables hot but raw. Preparing the stuffing and having it fully cooked enables me to bake the peppers just long enough to make them warm, but still crunchy.

You will need:

4 large peppers
1/2 C cooked farro
1 lb ground turkey

3 Tbsp ketchup
1/2 C water
1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 Tbso minced garlic (or 2 cloves)
1 C part-skim shredded mozzarella

Preheat oven to 400.

Prepare farro according to package directions and set aside. In a large skillet sautee ground turkey with onion. When fully cooked, add ketchup, worcestershire sauce, garlic, salt & pepper (to taste). Add 1/2 C water and slowly stir in cooked farro. Continue to sautee until the water has been fully incorporated.

Cut tops off of peppers and clean out the seeds. Stuff with farro & turkey mixture 7 top with part-skim mozzarella. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

Each stuffed pepper yields approximately:
Calories: 428
Fat: 18g
Carbs: 27g
Protein: 48g