Many of us have fond memories of peppers stuffed with a ground meat and rice mixture from our childhood. Every couple years, when I have enough peppers that I wonder what I should do, I make traditional stuffed peppers. These peppers are full of a very tasty rice and vegetable mixture. I did make some changes as I didn't have any mushrooms. I'm sure they would be good though!
Brown rice is one of my favorite grains. It does take 45 minutes or more to cook, but now that I'm lucky enough to work from home, I don't have to hurry as much around dinner time, so that is normally not a problem. Brown rice is hearty. It has a wonderful nutty flavor and can be substituted for white rice in any recipe. Just adjust cooking time and water.
If you are always looking for new ways to cook vegetables, I encourage you to check out this cookbook. It's excellent.
Farmer John's Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables
from John Peterson and Angelic Organics
Note: This is not a weeknight recipe, it does take some time, as any stuffed pepper recipe will.
Vegetable Stuffed Peppers with Parmesan
4 bell peppers (any color), tops sliced off; seeds removed (chop and reserve the pepper from the tops)
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 cup butter, divided
1 large onion, minced (about one cup) and divided
1 1/2 cups uncooked brown rice
2 ribs of celery, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
1/4 cup corn (fresh or frozen)
2 large handfuls spinach, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced (optional)
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
dash cayenne pepper
1 large tomato, diced ( I used oven roasted tomatoes to add flavor)
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, divided
freshly ground pepper
Other items that would taste great in this include: mushrooms, zucchini, yellow squash, and feta in place of parmesan.
Directions:
Bring enough water to a boil to cover peppers. Add the peppers and 1 tablespoon of salt. Cook the peppers until they are almost soft, 3-4 minutes. Without dumping out the water, remove the peppers from the water and set in a colander to drain and cool.
Heat 2 Tablespoons of the butter to a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and saute until translucent and soft. Add the rice and stir frequently until golden. Add the proper amount of pepper water needed for the rice you use, usually twice the amount for brown rice. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until the liquid is completely absorbed. For brown rice about 45- 50 minutes.
Melt the remaining butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped pepper tops and all other vegetables, the ginger, garlic, and cayenne. Saute until the vegetables are tender and salt to taste. Remember! You'll be adding the rice into this, which was made with the salted pepper water!
Combine the rice and sauteed vegetables. I'd suggest using one of your pans instead of making yet another bowl dirty. Stir in the tomato, half of the Parmesan cheese, and pepper to taste.
You can fill the peppers whole, or cut in half and fill as I did below. Arrange them in a 9 inch square baking dish. Garnish with the remaining cheese. Put all filling in dish around peppers and bake until heated through.
Sorry for the blurry picture!
These peppers made a great side for dinner and doubled as the perfect lunch the next day. If you wanted to make these as a main dish, you could easily add some black or white beans for more protein.
Phrase of the day! With this recipe I want to introduce the concept of Mise en place to you. Detail can be found by clicking on the linked word, but basically Mise en place is a french concept for planning ahead or being prepared. You'll notice when I remember to take pictures, that I almost always have my vegetables chopped ahead of time and my spices measured and ready to dump. In restaurant kitchens the prep cook would be doing much of this work, but in our humble home kitchens we are prep and chef. The kitchen is less hectic, and more orderly, if the recipe has been read through, ingredients assembled, and prep completed. Do I always do this? No. But I usually regret it when I don't and all of a sudden I don't have the next ingredient! I've noticed more and more tv chefs using this term - now you'll know!
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