Dishfunctional Designs: Amazing & Easy Stuffed Peppers Recipe

Yesterday I made the most amazing stuffed peppers for dinner and my girls just raved over them, so I thought I would share the recipe here for those who have never tried them. This recipe is pretty straight up, but there are all types of variations that you can do such as adding black beans and sweet corn (I might make those next!)

You will need:

5 large Bell peppers, your choice of color (red, green, yellow, orange)

1 cup white rice (uncooked)

1/4 stick butter

1 medium sized onion, diced

1 pound ground beef

1 pound ground pork

3 cloves of fresh garlic, crushed

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

2 cans condensed tomato soup plus two cans of water (can use even more cans if you like it soupy)

Cook the rice:
In a small/medium sized pot, boil two cups of water on high heat. Add one cup of rice to the boiling water. Stir, cover, reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes. Once finished cooking, turn off and set rice aside.

Prep the peppers:

Wash each pepper. Cut each pepper in half lengthwise. Remove the stem, seeds, and ribs from inside of each pepper. Boil a medium sized pot full of water. Once boiling, place the peppers into the water, one or two at a time, and allow to boil for one minute. Remove peppers with tongs, drain. Repeat this process with each pepper half. Set peppers aside and allow to cool. Discard water.

Cook the meat:

In a large fry pan or cooking pot, melt 1/4 stick of butter on medium heat. Add one medium sized chopped onion and saute until onion is soft. Crush garlic and add to onion/butter mixture, sauteing for one minute. Add the ground beef and ground pork to the onion/butter mixture and stir while cooking until meat is browned and cooked through. Add the parsley, black pepper and salt and mix well. Drain excess fat from the pan.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

Add the rice and 1 cup of cheese to the meat:

Add 1 to 2 cups of the cooked rice to the meat and mix well. (use as much or as little of the rice as you like; I use about 2 cups of cooked rice.)

Add one cup of the shredded cheddar cheese to the meat and rice mixture and mix well.

Lightly spray a rectangular casserole dish with cooking spray. Sprinkle about one tablespoon of cheese in the bottom of each pepper.

Use a tablespoon to fill each pepper with the meat and rice mixture, pressing the mixture into the pepper while you work.

Repeat until all peppers are filled and meat/rice mixture is used up. Arrange the filled peppers in your casserole dish.

Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the peppers.

Just about ready to go into the oven!

Mix the two cans of condensed tomato soup with two cans of water until well blended.

Pour the tomato soup around and over your peppers. (If you like them very wet and soupy, you can use an extra can of soup with another can of water...I usually land up adding another can the next day)