Stuffed Bell Peppers

Okay, time for another recipe! I tried this one last week and I thought it was pretty darn good. Stuffed Bell Peppers! It's taken most of my life for me to learn to appreciate the bell pepper. The crunchiness, the bitter flavor of the green or the sweet flavor or yellow and orange, the earthy red. I think my favorite thing about them is how much color they can add to the most plain and simple dishes.

I mostly made this recipe up as I went, but I did look a few things up online (temperatures and cooking times, etc.)

Preheat oven to 350F or 180C.
Here's how we start-- Wash and slice the top of your peppers (4-5 peppers) off and set to one side- save these! Remove the membrane and seeds from the inside of your peppers as best you can. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and using a slotted spoon, add your peppers. Let them sit in the boiling water for about 3-5 minutes, just long enough to soften them. While these are boiling, fill a glass baking dish with about 1/8 inch of water. Remove your peppers from the pot and let them sit in the cold water. You will cook them in the water at the end. While those cool down, get started on your filling... Start by using the tops of your peppers that you set to one side. Cut around the stem and chop up as much as you can salvage. You can also use an extra pepper if you have one handy- I didn't. Also dice an onion and a tomato.
Brown 1 pound of ground beef in a pan. Add your chopped peppers, onion and tomato. Add about 1 tablespoon of cumin, as well as 1 teaspoon of paprika. I love adding garlic salt to just about everything I cook, so I added that as well. Cook all of this until your veggies are soft and your meat is done. Using a spoon, fill up your peppers with the meat mixture and pop in the oven at 350f (180C) for about 15 minutes. Remove the peppers and add a sun dried tomato to each, and sprinkle with grated cheese. Pop back in the oven for 5 more minutes, then ready to serve.

I served mine with couscous, though some people actually use rice or couscous with the meat mixture. I'm going to try this next time.

I'm also going to really start trying to remember to take pictures of the finished product for you. I always think of this as Mick is coming into the kitchen and grabbing his plate, but he never has his phone on him and I never use mine in the kitchen. And he's always too hungry to find his phone and snap a photo for me. Tonight is Chicken Tortilla Soup with Pita Bread, which I'll chronicle tomorrow WITH A PICTURE!

Happy eats!