I love this recipe because it's so easy to tweak the recipe to just a little to completely alter the flavours of the dish. This is the basic recipe, the one that I started with. Perfect for a cold night, keeps well, travels well and tastes delicious! I've based the number of peppers on a four person serving of 1 pepper per person. There will be leftover stuffing, so you could definitely add another pepper or two.
Ingredients
4 bell peppers (red, orange or yellow)
1 cup rice
1 lb. extra lean ground beef (chicken or turkey work well too)
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup frozen vegetables (mix of peas, carrots and corn)
1 cup shredded mozzarella or cheddar cheese (optional)
1 jar tomato sauce
Preheat oven to 400F
Directions
1- Cut tops off peppers. Trim bottoms so that peppers stand alone, but avoid making large holes in the bottom. Place peppers in a casserole dish.
2- Cook rice according to package instructions. For more flavour, cook in a gluten free vegetable of beef broth instead of plain water. Remove from heat and put aside.
3- In a large frying pan, cook ground meat over medium-high heat until cooked through. Add minced garlic and frozen vegetables and cook for another 3-5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Turn off heat and stir in rice. Mix to combine.
4- Fill peppers with rice mixture. Cover dish with aluminum foil and bake for 20-25 until peppers begin to wrinkle and look cooked through. Put aside extra stuffing for another meal or stuff extra peppers to freeze.
5- Remove foil and ladle tomato sauce over peppers. Sprinkle with cheese. Return to oven uncovered until cheese bubbles.
6- Serve peppers with side vegetables or a salad.
Tips
- To freeze peppers for later, freeze stuffed, but before baking in the oven. Cook from frozen.
- To use as a side dish, cut peppers in half and lie them on their sides in the baking dish. Fill halves and serve as a side dish.
-For BBQ peppers, stir in BBQ sauce while cooking meat and omit tomato sauce.
-Vegetarian: omit meat and use lentils instead.
