Stuffed bell peppers

I’m a sucker for stuffed peppers. I’d eat them all day long: at breakfast, at lunch, during dinner and also as a snack. That’s how much I love them.

However, I don’t get to cook them very often for several reasons: I can’t find fresh and tasty peppers all year long; it’s not really a light food and I’d like to maintain my proportions; the Big Mean Wolf I share my days with is not a big fan of minced meat. In fact, he kinda’ hates it.
Enough with the chitchat though. Let’s get to work.

First, you wash the bell peppers and remove the seed and all the membranes they have inside. I actually used for this recipe 5 big peppers and 3 tomatoes, from which I removed the pulp, and I used that later in the sauce.

Let’s get to the onion. You dice it and put it in a pan along with the heated vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil) and just let it soften for a couple minutes. Remove that from the heat and let it cool for a bit before adding it to the meat mixture.
Next step: the meat.
In a large bowl, add the meat, the rice, the onion and the spices (salt, pepper, paprika – to taste). Now comes the fun part: you can use a spoon to mix it all together or you can use your (clean) hands.
Friendly advice: Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty in the kitchen.
The stuffing: fill the bell peppers with the mixture and make a hole in the middle of it with your finger or the spoon’s handle, because you have to leave room for the increased volume of the rice. Place the peppers into the pot and pour cold water so that your peppers will be half covered in it – they really don’t have to be submerged all the way in water, they’re not the Titanic.

Add the thyme, the bay leaves, a sprinkle of salt, then cover the pot and place it into the preheated oven for one hour.
After one hour, remove the lid from the pot, add the tomato paste and the sugar, and place it uncovered back in the oven for another 20-30 minutes.

When it’s done, you can serve it with lots of sauce and cream on top, or at least that’s how I like mine. Mmmm… I just can’t get enough. Thank God I still have a bunch of them from yesterday!
Oh, and another friendly tip: this food is actually better tasting the next day, so you can make it ahead when you have the time and all you have to do later is reheated and enjoy it!

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Tagged: international recipe, minced meat, stuffed bell peppers, stuffed tomatoes