This week I was craving stuffed bell peppers, but I feared that none of the kids would touch dinner cooked in a pepper. The kids are typically ok with things like peppers and onions and tomatoes when they’re cut up into tiny pieces or hidden amongst other things that they like (ie–lots of meat). I figured that I would simply leave some of the meat filling out of the peppers and give it to them that way.
After I filled the peppers and stuck them in the oven to bake, though, I had such an abundance of filling left over that I knew I needed to do something MORE with it….and I just happened to have a refrigerated pie crust dough in the refrigerator, so I pulled it out, placed it on a cutting board, grabbed a cup from the cupboard, and started experimenting. My experiments, which I later named “Bell Pepper Poppers” and “Bell Pepper Mini Pies” were so good, I liked them better than I’ve ever liked stuffed bell peppers, and though they were simply an attempt to provide my kids with a less-pepper option for dinner and use up the extra filling, these two variations will be showing up at future dinners for sure.
- 6 green bell peppers
- 1-2 Tbsp olive oil
- ½ cup onion, chopped
- ½ cup celery, chopped
- 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes
- 1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp dried basil
- 2 tsp salt, divided
- ½ tsp ground black pepper, divided
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1½ lbs lean ground beef
- 1½ cups cooked brown rice
- ⅓ cup bread crumbs
- ½ to ¾ cup shredded Cheddar cheese
- Cut tops off peppers; clean out the insides. Remove stem from pepper tops and chop the remaining pepper. Rinse pepper "cups" under cold water and place in a large pot of water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Turn peppers open side down on a paper towel to drain; set aside.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté chopped green pepper tops, onion, and celery for about 5 minutes, or until vegetables are tender. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, crushed garlic, oregano, basil, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon of pepper. Stir and simmer for about 10 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine egg, 1 teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper and Worcestershire sauce. Add ground beef, cooked rice, and tomato mixture and mix well.
- Stuff peppers with meat mixture and place in a baking dish. Bake at 350° for 1 hour. About 10 minutes before peppers are done, sprinkle tops of peppers with cheese; bake until cheese is melted.
Bell Pepper Poppers: Using the top of a cup, cut out circles from refrigerated pie crust dough. Press each circle into the cup of a mini muffin tin. Scoop a spoonful of the meat filling into each muffin cup. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Top with cheese.
Bell Pepper Mini Pies: Using the top of a cup, cut out circles from refrigerated pie crust dough. Lay each circle on a cookie sheet and place a small spoonful of meat filling on top of each pie crust circle. Fold each circle in half and pinch seams closed. Bake on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.
The stuffed peppers I’ve made in the past have all used ground beef that was cooked before stuffing it in the peppers (or pie crust in this case) and I really do think that part of the amazingness of this recipe is that stuffing the peppers with the raw meat and letting the meat cook inside the pepper.
This recipe was adapted from a recipe I found on About.com.
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