The Nourishing Art | Colorful Stuffed Peppers

03 Apr Colorful Stuffed Peppers

Posted at 23:32h in Recipes by Mazi

Here’s a dish I’ve been dying to make because of the sheer beauty of it. The art of food is definitely evident in a dish like this one. Peppers are a beautiful fruit that can be prepared alone or added to many dishes for taste and nutrition. And yes, you heard that correctly. Peppers are a fruit😉. Botanically speaking peppers are actually indeed fruit but in culinary they are treated as vegetables. They’re related to tomatoes, chili peppers, and bread fruit. We really should find more ways of incorporating this plant into our diet aside from adding it as a topping for our pizza🍕😂. And so here you are – stuffed peppers! This dish is a great way to do just that. In addition to this great recipe to encourage you, here are some valuable nutritional facts that you may not have known: Peppers are low in calories and rich in vitamin C for the immune system. They have vitamin B6 for the formation of red blood cells, vitamin K1 for blood clotting and bone health, potassium for improved heart health, folate which is very important during pregnancy, vitamin E for nerves and muscles, and vitamin A, which is important for normal vision and proper functioning of many other organs. Out of all the other colors, the red bell pepper is the richest in Vitamin A. As a society, and I’ve mentioned this before, I think we eat more for taste than for nutrition. Finding a way to balance that or doing a combo of these approaches to diet can’t do anything but benefit our quality of life. As a side note, you can modify this recipe by taking the rice out and turn it into a Keto meal.

Kingston enjoyed watching the process of how the peppers are hollowed out, boiled, stuffed, and then baked. You can easily get your sons and daughters interested in cooking with colorful fun tasty dishes like this one. Kingston doesn’t typically like cheese but he loved the Tillamook cheddar on these. He gave me the ole “this is good” thumbs up on this one.

Prep time: 25mins Cook Time: 40mins Total: 1hr 10mins Calories(without optionals): 385

Ingredients:

6 bell peppers

1/2 lb lean ground beef

1/2 lb Italian sausage

optional: sub ground turkey for the beef or sausage

1 small onion diced

2 cloves garlic

1 can small diced tomatoes

1/2 cup white rice uncooked

1 1/4 cup water

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

2 1/2 cups marinara sauce divided

1/2 cup cheddar cheese shredded

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut the tops off the peppers (keep the tops for a moment), remove seeds and innards and discard. Chop up tops (without stems) of the peppers to add to the filling.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and drop the peppers in for 5 minutes. Then take them out, drain, and set aside.
While peppers are boiling, in a large skillet, brown beef, sausage, onion and garlic over medium high heat until no pink remains. Drain any fat.
Now mix in the diced tomatoes with juice, rice, 1 1/4 cup water, diced pepper tops, Worcestershire sauce and Italian seasoning.
Bring to a simmer, reduce heat and cover. Cook 15-20 minutes or until rice is tender.
Pour 1 1/2 cups of marinara sauce in the bottom of a 9×13 pan or a deep skillet. Fill each pepper with the rice mixture then spoon remaining 1 cup of marinara sauce over the peppers.
Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove foil, baste peppers with any sauce in the bottom. Top with cheddar and bake an additional 3 to 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.