Stuffed Peppers New Mexico Vegan

New Mexican Stuffed Bell Peppers

Recipe

This recipe is a derivation of several stuffed bell peppers that I have had over many years. The first stuffed peppers were Hungarian style stuffed peppers made by a family that fled Hungary in 1956. The second stuffed peppers were from a college dining hall. The third were my Aunt Pat’s stuffed peppers. Finally, I moved to New Mexico and I missed stuffed peppers, so, I just made some using the New Mexican ingredients that I have on hand.

The first Hungarian Stuffed Peppers that I ate were made in the kitchen of a Hungarian refugee. The family moved to the Midwest USA because of the failure of the 1956 Hungarian Revolt. The revolt was against the former USSR and Hungary lost. This family fled to the USA. I made great friends with the daughter and her mother had lots of wonderful Hungarian recipes. I have a Hungarian Goulash that is fantastic thanks to this family. I also recognize a good smoky Hungarian paprika thanks to them too!

The second stuffed peppers I ate were, believe it or not, served in the college dining room. The dining room took a pizza twist with their stuffed peppers and what college kid does not like pizza flavored anything? It was also loaded with melted cheeses. Yum, on all accounts!

The most recent stuffed peppers were from Aunt Pat. Now, my Aunt Pat made her stuffed peppers with mushrooms, sausage, and bread dressing. They were delicious but I shudder at the calorie count. Her cheese topping was smoky Gouda. Often she served them as a side dish!

So, here I am carrying on the tradition of making stuffed pepper to suit the ingredients that I have on hand and the flavors of where I now live.

I used brown rice as my filler. Because I had left-over vegan ‘hamburger’ from a taco recipe, I used this as the meat. (See link) Hamburger works just fine in this recipe as well!

These are good!

Stuffed Peppers New Mexico

Recipe Ingredients:

1 cup of vegan hamburger substitute and one pizza vegan burger patty (chopped up) or, hamburger!

½ C. onion

2 Bell peppers

2 T. green chilés chopped (I used frozen/thawed but canned are fine.)

1/3 C. Tomato based enchilada sauce

1/3 C. catsup

1 C. cooked brown rice

Non-stick butter spray

½ C. Mexican cheese, shredded (cheddar and Monterey Jack)

Recipe Preparation:

Put rice on to cook. Use a vegetable or chicken flavored broth (vegans will do veggie!)

Preheat oven to 450°

Cut tops off the bell peppers and clean the seeds and membranes out, leave peppers whole

Boil a pot of water (about 2-3 inches of water) and place the bell peppers in the pot for 2-5 minutes until slightly cooked

Drain bell peppers on a towel (upside down)

Sauté the chopped onion and any bell pepper chopped/pieces from the tops of the bell peppers in a skillet

Add the hamburger substitute and the chopped burger patty and sauté until done.

Add the green chilés, tomato enchilada sauce, and catsup

Stir

Add the cooked rice

Stir and sauté until everything is warm

Fill the peppers with the contents of the skillet

Spray the baking dish with non-stick spray

Place any remainder of the filling on the bottom of the baking dish.

Top the filled bell peppers with cheese

Loosely cover with foil and bake in a 450° oven for 30 minutes or until the cheese melts and the peppers are warm all the way through.