This week I decided to make a family recipe, but put on a spin on it to make it my own. My mom used to make stuffed peppers for us as a special treat when we were younger because they take a bit more prep and time. The recipe is super easy to make it just requires more time, but then I had 6 total meals, so worth it. So without further ado, my recipe for scrumptious stuffed peppers.
Ingredients:
- 6 bell peppers (it does not matter what color they are, but it was hard to find ones that were similar in size because you want them to cook evenly)
- 1 pound of ground beef (you can use any ground meat, I happened to have grass-fed beef so I used that)
- 1 cup of cooked rice
- 15 ounce can of tomato sauce
- 1 medium onion, diced (as small as you can dice)
- 1/2 teaspoon of Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder (my family’s recipe calls for 3 minced cloves of real garlic, but I am not a huge garlic fan so I substituted with this
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- 1.5 cups of shredded cheese (I used mozzarella but you can use any type of shredded cheese that you have on hand)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350°F and coat a baking dish with cooking spray. I do not have cooking spray, so I used a piece of foil instead and it worked out great
- Remove the tops of the peppers and remove the seeds and inside “pith“.
- Tip: if the peppers can not stand up on their own, cut a thin layer off the bottom so it is even
- Put the peppers in the baking pan upside down and add 1.5-2 cups of water and cover with foil.
- Bake the peppers for 25 minutes.
- While the peppers are in the oven, make the rice. I made the mistake and thought rice was super quick to make… It is not and takes sometime. Due to this mistake, I had to microwave it, which is not the best way to make rice… So I recommend that as soon as the peppers are cooking, you follow the directions on the packaging of rice…
- While the rice and peppers are cooking, add the ground meat to a pan and drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper
- Cook until it is mostly cooked (about 5 minutes), and add the onion and cook till the meat is fully cooked (about 5 minutes)
- Add the garlic powder, Italian seasoning, rice, half of the cheese, and tomato sauce and cook until it is mixed together
- By now, the peppers should be done. Remove them from the oven, drain the water, and flip them over
- Fill each pepper with the filling and top with the left over cheese
- Cover the peppers with foil and cook covered for 20 minutes
- After 20 minutes remove the foil and cook for about another 10 minutes and now serve!
I paired the meal with a deep and fruity Merlot, and it added a nice additional flavor profile. I thought I would need two per meal, but I was wrong–these are very filling and you really only need one, especially if it is a larger pepper. These were the perfect lunch to bring to work. I reheated for 1.5 minutes in the microwave and it was amazing and did not become soggy or anything. This is a great recipe for when you have a little extra time and want to meal prep for the weekend. 10/10 recommend.
