Sausage and Millet Stuffed Peppers

I love stuffing things. I'm not sure why, but it's an easy and pretty way to serve things. I've been looking for a way to use millet, so I decided that I could adapt another recipe and stuff it into peppers. And what better way to use more of my lifetime supply of venison!

Sausage and Millet Stuffed Peppers (inspired by the Washington Post, which was inspired by Deborah Madison)

4 bell peppers of any color, halved lengthwise and seeded

1 tsp olive oil

2 small onions, sliced

3/4 lb hot bulk venison sausage (could use ground meat with added spices)

1 bunch green onions, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

corn cut from 1 ear

5 oz. spinach

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

2 cups cooked millet*

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Saute yellow onions until tender. Add sausage and cook until it's cooked through. Add green onions, garlic, corn, and spinach and cook until spinach is wilted. Remove from heat, stir in cilantro and millet, and stuff into peppers. Cook at 400 for about 30 min, until peppers are tender. Serves 4.

* To cook millet, sort and rinse 1/2 cup millet. Put in saucepan with 1 cup plus 2 Tbsp water, 1 tsp olive oil, and 1/8 tsp salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and let simmer until all water is absorbed (about 15 min). Remove from heat and let sit for 10 min.

This is amazingly good and I LOVED the millet. It has a great flavor, and puffs up just like rice. I don't know why people don't eat this more often because it's delicious. You could use any grain here (the original recipe called for rice), but I highly recommend the millet. In general, I love recipes that are completely adaptable to what you feel like throwing in. I recommend including the corn, though, because it gives it a great crunch.

After the millet experiment, I've decided that this year I want to eat all of the whole grains (including the ones I've had before). I've had brown rice, oats, quinoa, corn, wheat, and millet this month. Now time for amaranth, barley, buckwheat, bulgur, farro, wheat berries, kamut, rye, sorghum, spelt, teff, triticale, and wild rice. I have most of these already, and I'm hoping that I can find the rest. I suppose I may have to make an exception if I can't, and I may exclude rye because I know I'm not a huge fan. I'm already dying to make more wheat berries and bulgur, so I'm sure I'll get to those soon. Hopefully I'll find more that I love!