Pomi Stuffed Peppers

Recently the people who make POMI tomatoes contacted me to see if I’d like to try their product. I jumped at the chance because lately I’ve been more and more concerned about some of my favorite canned products (tomatoes and beans) with their dangerous BPA lining in the cans. My friend Nicole wrote a great post about this called BPA Blues. A growing body of research is finding a link between BPA and a variety of health problems, such as infertility, heart disease, prostate cancer, and breast cancer. But on the flip side canned tomatoes are actually healthier than fresh tomatoes because the antioxidant lycopene is enhanced in the processing. What’s a tomato lover to do!? Go with POMI.

POMI tomatoes are extremely low in sodium and come in a box so you don’t need to worry about BPA contamination from containers or rust from the cans. Here are some other healthy facts about POMI:  

• Pomi’s manufacturer Boschi is a certified producer of organic foods in Italy and prides itself on ONLY using seeds that are not genetically altered
• No preservatives
• Low in sodium [10 mg. vs 250 – 400 mg sodium for Del Monte and Hunts]
• Rich in Lycopene
• Antioxidant-rich
• BPA free

You can most likely find POMI in any specialty store that stocks organic/natural products or gourmet Italian food.

The other night I decided to use my POMI strained tomatoes in a quick stuffed pepper recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 green bell peppers
• 1 cup uncooked buckwheat
• 1.5 cups sliced mushrooms
• 1 cup POMI strained tomatoes
• shredded soy cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Open and cut seeds out of peppers and set aside. Preheat oven to 350. Meanwhile, cook buckwheat in 2 cups boiling water. In the last few minutes of cooking, add in sliced mushrooms.

2. Mix in POM strained tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste. Scoop buckwheat filling into pepper cavities and top with a few teaspoons of shredded soy cheese. Place the pepper caps back on the peppers and bake for 15 minutes.

Unfortunately this is the last you’ll see of my pretty red cereamic dish. It split in half after coming out of the oven. Sad! That was a Valentine’s gift from my mom.

This one lil’ pepper didn’t look like a lot but buckwheat is so hearty and filling that this simple meal did the trick. I rediscovered my love for buckwheat with this meal, too. I remember when growing up, every so often my mom made kasha varnishkes, which I liked a lot. I’ll have to make that next!

The POMI strained tomatoes were great, but I had to add an extra dash of salt or two, since I’m so used to sodium-laden canned tomatoes and tomato sauce. Soon I’ll be sampling the POMI crushed tomatoes in another recipe for the blog – stay tuned!

Disclaimer: I was not paid by POMI to review their products.