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Stuffed Sweet Bell Peppers with Ground Meat and Basmati Rice
I love sweet red bell peppers especially when they are stuffed with ground meat. They taste delicious served with sour cream and sprinkled with dried parsley flakes. Not only is this dish creative, but it's also very filling. One large stuffed sweet red bell pepper should fill you up. You can enjoy it with some freshly baked bread, olives, a pickle, or a salad of mixed greens.
Below you will find my recipe for stuffed sweet bell peppers with different ground meat and Basmati rice. It includes a list of ingredients, step-by-step instructions on how to cook this delicious dish along with relevant recipe photos to make the cooking process easier. Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1 lb. Ground Chicken
- 1 lb. Ground Beef
- 1 lb. Ground Pork
- Sea Salt
- Dried Marjoram
- Pinch Black Pepper
- Few Tablespoons Olive Oil
- Water
- 9 Large Sweet Red Bell Peppers
- 1 Large, 1 Medium Onion
- 2 Stalks Celery
- 1 Medium Carrot
- Red Pack Plum Shaped Peeled Tomatoes in Puree, Italian Style
- Pinch Sugar
- Few Tablespoons Ketchup
- Basmati Rice
Instructions
- Take out the ground meat from the packaging, and place into a large bowl. Lightly mash it with your hands so the ground meat is not in a big chunk. Add two tablespoons of olive oil and six tablespoons of water and a little bit of salt into a cup. Mix well, pour onto the ground meat (beef, chicken, pork) and stir. Sprinkle with sea salt, black pepper (not too much), and dried marjoram and mix. Keep mixing everything until the ground meat is fluffy. You may need to add a little bit of seltzer to do this. The easiest way to mix ground meat is with your hands. You can use a spoon or fork if you'd like.
- Peel and finely chop one large onion and add to the ground meat. Add about 4 tablespoons of cooked Basmati rice and mix. To cook the Basmati rice simply soak it in water for a few minutes then rinse well and cook it on low heat (covered with a lid) for about 20 minutes or so. The proportion is 1 cup of rice to about 2 cups of water. Peak inside the pot once in a while to make sure the water hasn't all been absorbed by the rice. If no water is left in the pot the rice will stick to it and you don't want that to happen. If twenty minutes have not passed but the water is gone add more water to the pot. When the rice is done cooking rinse in water so it is not in clumps.
- Wash the sweet red bell peppers, and soak in boiling water for about a minute. Cut off the top of each one just about at the tip as you want to have a large opening but you don't want to lose any of the bell pepper. Then using your hands gently remove the inside of each bell pepper - seeds. etc. - making sure not to crack it.
- Using your hands stuff the sweet red bell peppers with the ground meat. Be careful when doing so, so as not to crack the peppers. When done set aside.
- Take a large wide pan (I prefer the Zepter wok) and drizzle with canola oil (or cooking oil of your choice). Add slices of veggies to the pan (onion, carrot, celery). Lay out the stuffed peppers on top.
- Open a can of Red Pack plum shaped peeled tomatoes in puree. Take out about four tomatoes and cut into small pieces. Then add a little bit of the sauce from the can. Squeeze out a few tablespoons of ketchup and mix well. You may need to add a pinch of sugar if you find the mixture a bit too sour.
- Add tomato mixture into the pan with the stuffed bell peppers so it gets on the peppers and on the bottom as well. Then take about 1/4 cup of water add a pinch of salt to it and add to the pan. Cover with a lid and cook on medium-low heat for about an hour. When done serve with sauce from the pan, a heaping spoon of sour cream, and sprinkle with dried parsley flakes. You can add olives, or a salad of mixed greens on the side. If you have left over sauce on the plate scoop it up with some freshly baked bread.
- If you find that you have left over ground meat, don't worry. No need to throw it away or freeze it. Shape it into the shape of balls (to fit into your hand) and place them in another deep pan repeating steps 5-7. You will create another dish - meatballs in tomato sauce - that will go great with pasta, rice or mashed potatoes.
Another Stuffing for Sweet Bell Peppers
Instead of using ground meat for your sweet bell pepper stuffing you can use basmati rice and crimini mushrooms. Just wash the crimini mushrooms, chop them and fry them in a skillet along with some chopped onions. Then add them to the cooked basmati rice and mix. Add a little bit of salt and other spices if you prefer and mix again. Then add this to each sweet bell pepper and cook the same way you cook the sweet bell peppers stuffed with ground meat.
