For each of us, there are certain meals that tend to pop up into our heads when we hear the phrase “Comfort Food”. One meal that I tend to have visions of when I hear that phrase are classic stuffed bell peppers. I mean, just the thought of its hearty stuffing, made of ground beef and rice, has the ability to fill up the most gluttonous of imaginations. But, today we’re going to turn that vision into reality.
Before we get into today’s lesson I would like to talk a little bit about the rice and the bell peppers in this recipe. First, when it comes to the rice, I tend to use whatever I have in my pantry, whether it is long-grain white rice, medium grain, or brown rice. You can use whatever you prefer, and in fact, you can substitute the rice for a number of any other grains such as quinoa, or farro. Feel free to get creative with it. Secondly, when it comes to the bell peppers, I like to use red, orange, and yellow peppers as I find them to be a little sweeter, but if you prefer green then, by all means, use them. It is also important to note, that the size of the bell peppers can vary significantly.
This means that the number of bell peppers you can stuff will vary also. To help with this issue I recommend that you get an extra bell pepper or two just in case, as it’s painful when you end up with too much stuffing and not enough bell peppers to stuff. So, enough talk, let’s get into today’s lesson class.
Stuffed Bell Peppers Recipe
Prep time: 20 to 30 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes to an hour
Servings: 4 to 6 people
Ingredients
4 Large bell peppers, or 6 medium to small bell peppers
1 Lb of ground beef
2 Cups of cooked rice (made from 1 cup of uncooked rice)
1 Medium onion, diced
1 Medium tomato, diced
2 to 3 Cloves of garlic minced
1 Tsp Dried oregano
1 Tsp Smoked paprika, or regular paprika if you don’t have smoked
1 Pinch of dried thyme
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Black pepper
For sauce:
½ Cup of ketchup
1 Tsp of Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Cook the rice: Follow the instructions for cooking rice on the packaging that your rice came in, and make 2 cups of cooked rice. Typically rice expands to twice its size when cooked, so 1 cup of uncooked rice should give you roughly 2 cups of cooked rice.
* If you live on a tight schedule then you can always do this step a day ahead of time.
- Prep & steam the bell peppers: First prep the bell peppers by washing them, and cutting off their tops with a paring knife. After you have cut off the bell peppers tops it is important that you deseed them. To deseed the bell peppers simply take your hands and stick them inside the bell peppers and rip out the seeds and ribs from the bell pepper. Once all of the bell peppers have been deseeded, it is time to steam them for 10 minutes.
While you don’t necessarily have to steam the bell peppers, I personally think that it helps to make them a little more tender when they are done.
-
Preheat oven: At this time it is best that you begin preheating your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Mix the stuffing: Get out a large bowl, and place the beef, cooked rice, diced tomato, diced onion, garlic, oregano, thyme, paprika, and salt & pepper into it. Then use either a spoon or your hands to mix all of those ingredients together.
Make sure not to over mix all of the ingredients as the cooked rice can end up becoming one big piece of mushy glop.
- Stuff the bell peppers: Begin stuffing each of the bell peppers with the stuffing mix. While you can stuff the bell peppers any way that you wish, I personally like to place two spoonfuls in each bell pepper at a time, and then circle back, repeating the process until I have every bell pepper stuffed. I feel that by doing it this way you can better control how the stuffing mixture is distributed amongst the bell peppers, making sure that none are over or under stuffed. Once each bell pepper is stuffed, place them in a baking dish, and add a little bit of water to the bottom of the baking dish.
You need just enough so that the bottom of the baking dish is covered with a quarter-inch of water.
- Make the topping sauce: Get out a small bowl and add the ½ cup of ketchup, and the teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce. To these ingredients, add a couple of splashes of water, I tend to just eyeball this amount, but for those of you that wish for a more exact quantity I would say about a ¼ cup of water should do. Now take either a fork or a whisk and mix all of those ingredients to create our topping sauce. Once the sauce is made, take a spoon and pour a little bit of it over the top of the bell peppers.
* You can reserve the rest of the sauce for when you are eating the bell peppers
- Cook the peppers: Add the baking dish with the bell peppers to your heated oven, and let them cook for 45 minutes to an hour. The stuffed bell peppers will be done when the internal temperature reads 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Once they have reached that temperature take them out of the oven and let the rest for a couple of minutes before serving.
- Serve & enjoy
Stuffed Bell Peppers Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 Large bell peppers or 6 medium to small bell peppers
- 1 Lb of ground beef
- 2 Cups of cooked rice made from 1 cup of uncooked rice
- 1 Medium onion diced
- 1 Medium tomato diced
- 2 to 3 Cloves of garlic minced
- 1 Tsp Dried oregano
- 1 Tsp Smoked paprika or regular paprika if you don’t have smoked
- 1 Pinch of dried thyme
- 1 Tsp Salt
- 1 Tsp Black pepper
For sauce:
- ½ Cup of ketchup
- 1 Tsp of Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Cook the rice: Follow the instructions for cooking rice on the packaging that your rice came in, and make 2 cups of cooked rice. Typically rice expands to twice its size when cooked, so 1 cup of uncooked rice should give you roughly 2 cups of cooked rice.* If you live on a tight schedule then you can always do this step a day ahead of time.
- Prep & steam the bell peppers: First prep the bell peppers by washing them, and cutting off their tops with a paring knife. After you have cut off the bell peppers tops it is important that you deseed them. To deseed the bell peppers simply take your hands and stick them inside the bell peppers and rip out the seeds and ribs from the bell pepper. Once all of the bell peppers have been deseeded, it is time to steam them for 10 minutes. While you don’t necessarily have to steam the bell peppers, I personally think that it helps to make them a little more tender when they are done.
- Preheat oven: At this time it is best that you begin preheating your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Mix the stuffing: Get out a large bowl, and place the beef, cooked rice, diced tomato, diced onion, garlic, oregano, thyme, paprika, and salt & pepper into it. Then use either a spoon or your hands to mix all of those ingredients together. Make sure not to over mix all of the ingredients as the cooked rice can end up becoming one big piece of mushy glop.
- Stuff the bell peppers: Begin stuffing each of the bell peppers with the stuffing mix. While you can stuff the bell peppers any way that you wish, I personally like to place two spoonfuls in each bell pepper at a time, and then circle back, repeating the process until I have every bell pepper stuffed. I feel that by doing it this way you can better control how the stuffing mixture is distributed amongst the bell peppers, making sure that none are over or under stuffed. Once each bell pepper is stuffed, place them in a baking dish, and add a little bit of water to the bottom of the baking dish. You need just enough so that the bottom of the baking dish is covered with a quarter-inch of water.
- Make the topping sauce: Get out a small bowl and add the ½ cup of ketchup, and the teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce. To these ingredients, add a couple of splashes of water, I tend to just eyeball this amount, but for those of you that wish for a more exact quantity I would say about a ¼ cup of water should do. Now take either a fork or a whisk and mix all of those ingredients to create our topping sauce. Once the sauce is made, take a spoon and pour a little bit of the sauce over the top of the bell pepper so that it covers the stuffing mixture.* You can reserve the rest of the sauce for when you are eating the bell peppers
- Cook the peppers: Add the baking dish with the bell peppers to your heated oven, and let them cook for 45 minutes to an hour. The stuffed bell peppers will be done when the internal temperature reads 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Once they have reached that temperature take them out of the oven and let the rest for a couple of minutes before serving.
Inspiration from other blogs
From Simply Recipes
From Foodie Crush
