RECIPE: Stuffed Peppers

 
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Stuffed peppers are one of the easiest meals to put together. Just mix all of your favorite ingredients together in a bowl and stuff them inside a pepper. Bake in the over for awhile and voila! You’ve got a healthy, filling meal.

I like to make about a dozen of these at a time, cook one or two for a dinner on the spot, and freeze the rest, uncooked, for even faster meals in the future.

The best part about these is that you can use literally ANY ingredients that you want. The following is a very basic recipe that I go by when I make 10-12 stuffed peppers at a time. You can add more or less of any of the ingredients listed for your own unique spin on this classic recipe.

Ingredients:

  • ~10 Peppers

  • One box of Near East wild rice

  • 2 pounds of Maplebrook Farmstead ground beef

  • 1 pound of ground sweet or hot Italian sausage

  • 1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced

  • 1 medium sized onion, diced

  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced

  • Salt and Pepper

  • Your favorite shredded cheese (I LOVE “rustic cut” extra-sharp cheddar from Cabot)

  • Marinara sauce

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

  2. Core the peppers, rinsing out the seeds and discarding the stems. Any parts of the pepper that are edible can be saved and tossed into your stuffing mixture.

  3. In a saucepan, cook rice to the specifications on the package.

  4. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cooked rice, ground beef, sausage, mushrooms, onions, and garlic. Add a hefty dash of salt and pepper.

  5. Mix together all of the ingredients thoroughly. I find its easiest to roll up your sleeves and mix by hand.

  6. Stuff your peppers.

  7. Any extra stuffing mixture can be saved and stored in the freezer sans pepper. For stuffed peppers that you’d like to save for another time, store uncooked in freezer bags in the fridge for 12-24 hours to let the flavors develop, then store in freezer.

  8. For peppers that you’ll cook now, place them in an appropriately-sized baking dish that will keep them upright as they cook. Fill the bottom of the dish with about a quarter inch of water. Cover with tinfoil.

  9. Place in over and cook for about an hour, until the stuffing sticks together in one large clump (rather than crumbling apart).

  10. Once they’re cooked, remove from oven and add marinara sauce and your favorite cheese to the top, if desired.

    Bon Appetit!