My Culinary Adventures: Stuffed Bell Peppers

Whenever I travel to El Progreso to get some shopping done, I always seem to come back with a lot more than I had planned on getting.  My eyes were bigger than my stomach when I saw the different-colored bell peppers (we only have green here) and I bought a lot more than I could eat by myself.  I decided to try this recipe for stuffed bell peppers, since I also had bought ground beef and wanted to use that in something other than pasta sauce.  Had my site-mate over to share, and froze the leftovers in the freezer.  They still tasted great after reheating!

Stuffed Bell Peppers
Recipe adapted from Simply Recipes

I ended up with more stuffing than was needed, so I mixed the rest with pasta on a later day.  Yum!  The next time I make this, however, I think I will actually mix the ketchup/worcestershire sauce into the stuffing before baking.  It would make for a more flavorful dish.

Ingredients
4 bell peppers, any color
Salt
5 tbsp olive oil
1 medium yellow onion
3-4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 pound lean ground beef
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
1 cup fresh chopped tomatoes
2 tsp dried oregano
Pepper
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
Dash of Tabasco sauce

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Meanwhile, cut top off peppers 1 inch from the stem end, and remove seeds. Add several generous pinches of salt to boiling water, then add peppers and boil, using a spoon to keep peppers completely submerged, until brilliant green (or red if red peppers) and their flesh slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Drain, set aside to cool.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Heat 4 tbsp of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and cook, stirring often, until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook a minute more. Remove skillet from heat, add meat, rice, tomatoes, and oregano, and season generously with salt and pepper. Mix well. (You may find it easier to put the ingredients at this point into a large bowl and mix together with your hands.)
3. Drizzle remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil inside the peppers. Arrange the cut side of the peppers up in a baking dish, then stuff peppers with filling. Combine ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, and 1/4 cup of water in a small bowl, then spoon over filling. Add 1/4 cup of water to the baking dish. Place in oven and bake for 40-50 minutes (or longer, depending on how big the peppers are that you are stuffing), until the internal temperature of the stuffed peppers is 150-160°F.