I love stuffed bell peppers but I don’t make them very often because they are quite a lot of work, depending on the recipe you are using. I have tried using recipes that require very little prep time and they come out ok, but I prefer the homemade start from scratch. I love rice and when I am in a hurry sometimes I will use the boil in a bag or instant rice, but I much prefer the cook from scratch. This Stuffed Bell Pepper Recipe takes has a lot of prep time because of having to pre cook the rice and blanch the peppers, but it is well worth the effort. This recipe will fill 4 extra large peppers or 6 medium to large. Cooking time will also very a little depending on the size of the peppers. I used 4 different colored peppers for this Stuffed Bell Pepper Recipe, but you can use any color sweet pepper. Enjoy
Stuffed Bell Pepper Recipe |
- 4-6 bell peppers
- Salt
- 1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion (chopped)
- 3 cloves of garlic (chopped)
- 1 lb of lean ground beef
- 1 1/2 cup of cooked rice (one cup raw cooked)
- 1 14 oz can chopped tomatoes (drained)
- 1 teaspoon of dried oregano
- Fresh ground pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1/2 tsp of Worcestershire Sauce
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- Precook the rice (you can do this anytime during the day)
- Cut top off peppers 1 inch from the stem end, and remove seeds.
- To blanch the peppers, use a large kettle 3/ 4’s full of water, bring to a boil, and add a teaspoon of salt.
- Submerse the peppers in the boiling water; holding them down with a large spoon or spatula. Boil the peppers till the colors start to brighten up; this should take 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the peppers to a plate and let them cool.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large skillet cook the onions, garlic, and burger; till the burger is browned and no longer pink inside.
- Remove the skillet from the heat and add the rice, tomatoes, oregano, and season generously with salt and pepper. Mix well.
- Set the bell peppers upright in a baking dish, drizzle each one with a little olive oil inside, then stuff them with the rice and burger mixture.
- To top the peppers mix together the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and 1/4 cup of water in a small bowl, then spoon over the top of the peppers. Then add a 1/ 4 cup water to the bottom of the baking dish and bake 50 minutes to 1 hour to an internal temperature of 165F.
- Just before the peppers are done remove them from the oven and top with shredded cheddar. Return them to the oven till the cheese has melted. Serve hot. Enjoy
- I also used the usable part of the cut off pepper stems, diced them up, and mixed them with the burger and onions; when I browned the burger.