Corn & Black Bean Stuffed Flamingo Peppers

By our guest chef, Danielle Arostegui

Danielle Arostegui is a new CSA member. She blogs about food, gardening, and outdoor adventuring at Girl Gone Gardener, where she has a regular series called CSA Saturday, in which she writes about all the recipes she made with her CSA produce that week. This blog is full of great recipe ideas! You can follow Danielle on Instagram at @girlgonegardener.

4 Flamingo peppers*
2 large tomatoes or 3-4 small tomatoes
Olive oil
2 ears of corn, kernels removed
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
½ cup red onion, chopped finely
½ - 1 jalapeno, seeds removed and chopped finely
½ bunch of chives (or substitute scallions) minced (approx. 1/3 cup)
½ cup instant grits, cooked according to instructions
½ cup cheddar cheese
¾ tbsp chili powder 
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp salt
Fresh ground pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375º. 

1. Cut off the top half-inch of the peppers and remove the cores and seeds from inside. Slice a tiny sliver off the bottom of each pepper, if necessary, to get it to stand upright. Stand peppers in a rimmed, greased baking pan or ovenproof pot. 

2. Roughly chop the tomatoes into cubes, and cook on the stove over medium heat with a glug of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper until the juices release and the flesh starts to fall apart (5-10 minutes). Remove from heat and let sit.

3. Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl and mix to combine. Add cooked tomatoes and mix until evenly moistened. Spoon mixture into hollowed out peppers until full. Replace pepper tops and cover the entire pan with tin foil. 

4. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour. Remove foil and bake for an additional 20 minutes. Serve warm. Don’t worry if the peppers get a little bit charred and wrinkly looking—they’ll still taste great!

* This recipe makes more than enough stuffing for four average-sized peppers. I personally like to cook the extra stuffing in a separate pan. It gets nice and crispy and you can serve it with the peppers for those that enjoy a higher filling-to-pepper ratio, but you could also use the extra to stuff additional peppers.