Back to Home About Mango & Tomato Contact MePublicity & News Hire Me!Portfolio

3/2/09

Herb-y Stuffed Peppers

This meal was inspired by two awesome male bloggers: Peter M and Stephane.

Last week I was looking at Peter M's blog and saw an awesome recipe for stuffed peppers. I decided I should use ground beef I won from Stephane to make stuffed peppers this weekend.

I've made a few recipes for stuffed peppers in the past (last year I made a basic version of stuffed peppers and in the spring I made Quinoa Stuffed Peppers., followed by lazy stuffed peppers), and in fact I get a bunch of hits from people who Google stuffed peppers.

What's different about this recipe, is that instead of cooking rice and ground beef before stuffing the peppers, the beef and rice is used raw (well, almost). In fact, that's how my parents make stuffed peppers all the time: so also special Thank you to my mom, for telling me what to do with the rice.

And now, I present you Herb-y Stuffed Peppers


Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 carrot, peeled, sliced
4 springs thyme
salt & pepper
10 ounce can tomato puree
1/2 cup long grained white rice
2 cups ground beef
10 basil leaves, chopped
1 small bunch cilantro, chopped
2 celery stalks, finely diced
3 large peppers (I used 2 red and 1 green: seriously, the red ones were on sale for $2.50/each: you call that sale???)
sour cream



Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375
2. Heat oil in a skillet, add onions, carrots and thyme. Season with salt and pepper and saute for about 10 minutes.
3. Add tomato puree to the vegetables and simmer for about 5 minutes.



4. Meanwhile, cook rice for about 5 minutes, drain and rinse in cold water.
5. Combine rice, ground beef, herbs and celery. Season with salt and pepper, and add a few tablespoons of water (this was my mom's suggestion to keep the mixture moist).
6. Pour the vegetable/tomato sauce into a baking dish.



7. Remove the tops off the peppers, take out the seeds and the membranes. Stuff the peppers with the rice/beef mixture and set into the baking dish. Cover with the pepper tops.

8. Bake lightly covered in aluminum foil for 1 hour. Remove the foil and bake additional 30 minutes.

Serve the peppers with fresh basil and a dollop of sour cream.

Thoughts: My apartment smelled amazing after I made these peppers. I don't think I'll ever go back to my old way of precooking rice and ground beef. I liked that the sauce was sweet from the carrots. This was a great meal: can't wait to have leftovers for lunch.

P.S. do you like my new green napkin?

17 comments:

The Purple Carrot said...

Thanks so much for sharing this! I've been wanting to make stuffed peppers sometime soon an this gave me some great ideas ... they look DELICIOUS! : )

Anonymous said...

So you didn't pre-cook the rice at all and then it cooked inside the pepper? That's neat. I usually put in the beef raw but pre-cook the rice (mostly).

Peter M said...

Olga, the stuffed peppers look fabulous... the whole building must have smelled the aromas from your kitchen!

Now you have a new dish to add to your roster and thank you for the link-luv. ;)

Sara said...

Love the green napkin :). These look really good. I hate the way that red pepper prices vary so much, one week they'll be $1.99/lb, the next week they're $5.99/lb. How does that work?!

Vera said...

Delicious looking and healthy meal!

Unknown said...

Wow! Those look amazzzing! I think I'll have to try this one out. I love the green napkin and the step by step pictures.

pigpigscorner said...

Looks gorgeous! Sounds really healthy as well!

Gera@SweetsFoodsBlog said...

Olga, delectable stuffed peppers I like visually, the aroma in your kitchen mmmm and surely taste scrumptious!
Can I've dinner with you?

Cheers,
Gera

sj said...

beautiful Olga... your photos are fantastic sweetheart! Bet those peppers were amazing too :)

Chef Fresco said...

Mel from Schweet 'N Savory told us to check out your blog, as we recently made stuffed peppers for our site. Yours look delicious as well, pretty pictures too!

Anonymous said...

Oh these look great. :D Haven't had stuffed peppers in ages. Thanks!!

+Jessie

veggie belly said...

great pictures! this looks so colorful!

Anonymous said...

Yes, how colourful they are - and delicious hot or cold!

Helene said...

I bet yout whole appartment building smelle fantastic! Love stuffed peppers!

BlueToYou said...

as always the presentation is so professional and the photos magazine quality :) great job olga!

tamilyn said...

The hubs loves stuffed peppers. I will try this instead of the regular filling I put in for him. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Looking for a great present for your mother, thomas sabo charms the woman who gave birth to you, raised you, and was there for you every step of the way? What can you give her that she would love, and at the same time would cheap thomas sabo charms remind her of you, and her grandchildren?Give Mom personalized jewelry - personalized jewelry thomas sabo charm is a great gift for a Mother and it could be personalized with different things, thomas charms such as a names, initials, birthstones and many other things. The best thing about it is that it can be personalized with Mother's name, or names and initials thomas sabo charms uk of her kids and grandkids. This will make the piece of jewelry one of a kind, and your Mom will know sabo charms that you picked the gift just for her.