Stuffed Peppers

Oh mom, how I miss your cooking.  I remember how much of a treat it was to see that you had made stuffed peppers for dinner.  It was healthy food in disguise – serving it in a vegetable is clever indeed.  Of course, like everything else mom made in the 80s and 90s, this dish could use a healthy re-make.  Thanks to Jay for modifying his mom’s recipe to be more health conscious. Recipe follows.

The sauce tastes a little like the spaghetti-o sauce.  If you like that flavor, you will love this.  If that doesn’t sit well with you, don’t be afraid to use sauce from a jar or your own homemade sauce.  When picking sauce from a jar, be sure to pick one that is lower in sugar (Contadina is the lowest I’ve heard).

Try experimenting with the seasoning of the meat as well.  Since it’s turkey it will take to whatever you throw in there.  Maybe try chili powder and brown sugar, and then topping with salsa.  Or you could add in some curry and then top with some form of yogurt sauce after it’s baked.  Play around with it, it’s pretty flexible.

When you cook the peppers, you MUST cover them.  It can be with tin foil or a lid that came with the dish, but they have to be covered.  If you don’t cover the dish your meat will be cooked but the pepper will still be crunchy.  It’s not a pleasant texture, and the flavor of the raw pepper overwhelms.

Recipe (thanks Jay and Jay's mom)

4-6 medium peppers

1 lb very lean ground beef

1 tbsp dried minced onion

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 cup cooked rice (cooled)

1 can Tomato Soup

8 oz Tomato sauce

Slice top ¼” off of peppers, clean out inside and sit aside.  Mix beef, onion, salt, pepper, rice together and fill in pepper, being sure not to overfill.  Line deep casserole dish with tomato sauce / soup mix.  Add peppers.  Add remaining sauce, adding some to pepper tops.  Cover.  Bake at 350 for 1 hour.  Remove cover and bake another 10 minutes.