Stuff it: Veggies become vessels with really tasty fillings

If you live in the Midwest, you know what a stuffed pepper is: typically a big green bell pepper shell filled with a ground meat mixture and baked in the oven.

Same with a cold tomato dish that is stuffed with chicken or tuna salad. Ho hum.

Other interesting stuffings and vegetables shells are out there, says Yummly.com, another great online recipe compiler that offered a variety of dishes in a recent email newsletter: Stuff a squash. Stuff an avocado. Stuff an eggplant. Plus, some tasty twists on fillings.

Here are seven recipes to consider.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft.

Add the garlic and the chicken and cook until browned. Stir in the salt, cayenne, and vinegar. Continue cooking until chicken is cooked through.

Cut the bell peppers in half and remove the core and seeds.

Fill the peppers with the chicken mixture and lay in a baking dish. Add a few tablespoons water to the bottom of the dish and cover tightly with foil. Bake 35 minutes.

Remove the cover and top each bell pepper half with a half slice of provolone. Put back in the oven uncovered, and bake until cheese is browned and bubbly, 5-10 more minutes.

Yields: 4 servings (1 stuffed bell pepper half) , each with 173 calories, 8 grams fat, 45 mg cholesterol, 151 mg sodium, 9 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams fiber, 4 grams sugar, 17 grams protein.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Place whole squash on a baking sheet and roast for 50 minutes. Let cool another 30 minutes, then cut in half (a serrated knife is best for this).

Spoon out the seeds and discard, then scrape up the spaghetti squash flesh with a fork, creating the “spaghetti.”

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add onion, garlic, jalapeno and red bell pepper. Sauté 2 minutes.

Stir in cumin, oregano, chili powder and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Sauté 1 more minute. Stir in beans, corn, half of cilantro and lime juice until well combined. Add the “spaghetti” from each squash to the vegetable mixture and stir to combine. Taste and season as desired.

Set oven to broil. Stuff each squash half with the squash-vegetable mixture and top with cheese. Broil until it melts and gets brown and bubbly, 1-2 minutes. Makes 2 large servings or 4 side dish servings.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice tops off tomatoes, and scoop pulp out of centers; set shells and tops aside.

2. Discard half of tomato pulp; remove seeds from and finely chop remaining half of pulp.

3. Whisk together eggs and ricotta in medium bowl until smooth. Stir in red onion, basil, 2 tablespoons Parmesan and garlic. Add corn, diced zucchini and chopped tomato pulp; stir until combined.

4. Fill tomatoes just to top with 1/2 cup ricotta mixture. Sprinkle each tomato with 1/2 teaspoon Parmesan, and top each with 3 zucchini slices and tomato top. Place in large baking dish.

5. Bake 45 minutes, or until filling is puffed up and tops are browned. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

To freeze and enjoy later: Cool stuffed tomatoes completely, then place in foil-lined baking pan. Wrap tightly in foil, then in plastic wrap and freeze. When ready to eat, thaw tomatoes completely. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake, uncovered, 20 to 30 minutes, or until filling is hot.

Serves 8, each stuffed tomato with 130 calories, 9 grams protein, 5 grams fat, 18 grams carbohydrates, 65 mg cholesterol, 151 mg sodium, 3 grams fiber, 10 grams sugar.

The trick to this recipe is to use really big zucchini; they stuff better.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat 2 teaspoons olive oil in a non-stick pan and saute onion and pepper for 3-4 minutes, until just starting to soften. Add minced garlic and saute about 1 minute more, being careful not to brown the garlic. Remove the onion, pepper and garlic mixture to a bowl.

Add 2 teaspoons more olive oil to the pan. Crumble in the ground beef and ground turkey, season, and cook over medium heat until the meat is well browned. Tilt pan to see if there is any extra fat, and remove with a spoon if there is.

Stir cooked vegetables and garlic back into the meat. Add tomato sauce and simmer until the mixture has thickened and liquid has cooked off, about 10 minutes; turn off heat.

While meat cools, cut zucchini into 2-inch thick slices, discarding ends. Use a sharp spoon or melon baller to hollow out a cup in each zucchini slice, leaving just over 1/4 inch of zucchini flesh. Be careful not to get too close to the skin or the cups will leak liquid when they cook.

Spray baking sheet with nonstick spray and stand up zucchini cups, open end up. Stir 1 1/2 cups grated cheese into the cooled meat mixture (it doesn't need to be completely cool), then spoon the meat-cheese mixture into zucchini cups, pressing down with the spoon and mounding it up a little over the top of the zucchini.

Bake zucchini cups 20 minutes, then remove from oven and use remaining cheese to top each one with a generous pinch of cheese. Put back in oven and bake 10-15 minutes more, until zucchini is slightly soft when pierced with a fork and cheese is melted and lightly browned. Serve hot.

Makes 6-8 servings.

In a bowl, mix together the cream cheese, hummus and chili garlic sauce until well combined.

Slice the avocado in half lengthwise and remove the pit. To make the avocado meat easy to remove later, cut a checkerboard pattern with your knife, leaving the shell intact.

Top each avocado half with a generous amount of the cream cheese mixture. Top with sprouts, peanuts and sriracha sauce.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and place a rack in the middle.

Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment and brush with olive oil.

Using a vegetable peeler, remove wide strips of the eggplants' skin.

Cut the eggplants open lengthwise, but don't slice completely through them. Sprinkle a big pinch of salt inside each eggplant, then set them cut-side down all in a colander and let rest about 30 minutes.

Place on the baking sheet and bake 20 minutes, until the outer skin begins to shrivel. Remove from the oven and set aside.

In the meantime, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet and add the onions.

Cook, stirring occasionally, for a few minutes, then add the bell pepper and garlic. Continue to cook until the vegetables are tender and have collapsed, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, then stir in the chopped tomato, sugar, cumin, tomato paste and parsley.

Cook for further 5 minutes, until fragrant. Set aside.

Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.

Arrange the eggplants in the baking dish so that each one is butterflied open. Season with salt and fill with the onion and tomato mixture.

Drizzle with remaining olive oil, add two tablespoons of water to the baking dish and bake about 40 to 45 minutes.

By the end of cooking the eggplants should be practically flat and the liquid in the pan slightly caramelized.

Serve warm or at room temperature, with a spoonful of the pan juices drizzled over the eggplant.

Serves 6, each with 116 calories, 12 grams fat, 11 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams protein.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the peppers by cutting off the tops, cutting them in half, and removing the stems and seeds. Set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and turkey and cook until browned and completely cooked through.

Add the chili powder, cumin and salt and stir to combine.

Next, add the uncooked rice, diced tomatoes and water and mix well. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to a simmer and cover. Cook until the rice is cooked through and the liquid has evaporated, which will take about 15 minutes.

Pour the marinara sauce into the bottom of a 13-by-9-inch baking dish.

Spoon the filling mixture into each bell pepper half and place them tightly into the prepared baking dish. Top each pepper half with some of the Mexican cheese then cover with foil.

Bake 30 minutes, then remove the foil and continue baking another 15 minutes, until the peppers are tender, the filling is hot and the cheese has melted. Serve two pepper halves on a plate with a little sauce from the bottom of the baking dish spooned over the top. Makes 4 servings.

This story was originally published July 20, 2015 at 6:15 AM with the headline "Stuff it: Veggies become vessels with really tasty fillings."