Quinoa Stuffed Tomatoes with Feta Cheese and Kalamata Olives

The theory: Quinoa is named 'superfood', one of the staple foods of the Incas civilization. It has nine essential amino acids, is gluten-freeI and contains lots of magnesium and iron. So, it is good for your health.

The practice: Quinoa has fluffy crunchy texture and nutty taste. It is really very tasty, no matter as a part of a sweet or savoury dish.  

The ingredients: young zucchini, salty kalamata olives, Feta cheese and quinoa. And, of course, do not forget the hot peppers. This stuffing is also excellent as a dish on its own - in that case you can add some lemon juice to increase the acid taste.

Ingredients:

·        1 cup quinoa

·    8 medium tomatoes

·    2 small zucchini, diced

·    3 banana hot peppers, deseeded and chopped finely

·    200g (7oz) Feta cheese, crumbled

·    15 kalamata olives, stoned and sliced thin

·    4 Tbsp olive oil

·    60 g (2oz) butter

·    2 cloves garlic, minced

·    freshly ground black pepper

·    sea salt, to taste

  Preparation:

Saute zucchini and hot peppers:

Heat the oil in a large frying pan on medium heat. Add hot peppers and zucchini and cook stirring occasionally until fragrant but not browned, about 10 minutes. Add garlic, cook for additional minute and remove from the heat.

Cook quinoa:

Measure a cup of quinoa and add to a pot containing a large amount of boiling water (at least 3 cups). Cover with a lid and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain in a sieve and run under cold water. Put in a bowl and fluff with a fork.

Core tomatoes:

Slice off the tops of the tomatoes, run a small knife around the core and pull out every core using your fingers. Turn every tomato upside down to clean out any excess left inside. Chop finely the core of each tomato and put in a small bowl.

Mix the filling, stuff and bake the tomatoes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).

Mix together the filling into a large bowl (cooked quinoa, Feta cheese, olives and zucchini-peppers-garlic mixture). Taste and season with freshly ground black pepper and some salt if needed. Stuff every tomato with a spoon and add some additional Feta cheese on top of each tomato. Make sure stuffing is not over-compacted - if so, tomatoes are going to break during the baking.

Spray your baking dish with cooking oil, arrange the tomatoes and put a small piece of butter on top of each. Bake for 30 minutes, take out of the oven, transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately.