Stuffed Bell Peppers

After about a week of decadent dishes (lots of duck fat), I’m taking a step back and doing a simple recipe with a low degree of difficulty: Stuffed Bell Peppers.

This is one of those dishes that can be made a variety of ways with a wide variety of ingredients. It’s the perfect mix-and-match recipe. My recipe uses ground turkey, brown and wild rice and a variety of different colored bell peppers.

Ingredients

• 4 bell peppers (different colors, if available), cored and seeded
• 1/2 cup brown and wild rice mix, cooked
• 1 pound ground turkey meat
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 red onion, minced
• 1 TBSP olive oil
• 1 TBSP cumin
• 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.


Ground Turkey Stuffing Mix

2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic until translucent (about 3-4 minutes).
3. Add ground turkey meat, cumin, salt and pepper and cook until browned (about 10-12 minutes).
4. Combine prepared rice mix and ground turkey in the skillet.
5. Oil a baking pan and place bell peppers upright then stuff 1/3 full with ground turkey and rice mixture. Then, layer in 1/2 of the cheese among the four peppers. Repeat stuffing layer and cheese layers until the peppers are fully stuffed.
6. Place stuffed bell peppers in oven and cook 12-15 minutes, until peppers are soft. For softer peppers, cook longer.
7. Remove peppers from oven and serve upright.

Bell Pepper Variety

I like my peppers on the crunchier side so I don’t cook them so long that they get soggy. It’s a personal preference and since you can’t really burn the peppers at 350F, feel free to cook them longer if you don’t want such a crunchy texture.

Each different color or bell pepper has a unique taste and even different nutritional facts. I’m partial to red and yellow, but enjoy every color. If you haven’t tried every variety, this is a great recipe to adventure with.

The Stuffed Bell Peppers can get a little messy if the stuffing starts to fall out, but they’re worth it. As an alternative, you can slice the bell peppers in half and lay them in the pan before stuffing. I think the presentation is better when the entire pepper is stuffed.