Spicy Stuffed Peppers

With how many variations of meat and carbs Bear insists on eating, I’m amazed I haven’t gotten around to trying my hand at stuffed peppers until now. To him it’s just not dinner without a meat and a heaping pile of white stuff – potatoes, or rice, typically, but he’ll make do with egg noodles in a pinch. And since I was actually a vegetarian when we got together, that has meant 14 years of complicated meals. I gave up vegetarianism quickly, mainly because I knew that one of us was going to starve if I kept at it and I was really only doing it because I was poor and it was the 90’s.

If you can believe it, he was still resistant to this. It didn’t matter that the pepper is essentially a bowl for meat and carbs, the fact that a vegetable played such a prominent role was enough for him to wrinkle his nose at me. Bear feels about food the way Mr. Darcy feels about people. His good opinion, once lost, is lost forever. And unfortunately for me his opinion of vegetables was made in childhood.

Once he actually tasted it, however, he was a convert. He ate two helpings, which equaled an entire pepper. Probably the first entire vegetable he’s ever eaten in his life. A few more recipes like this, and I might just be able to get him to eat a tomato.

Tresa’s Spicy Stuffed Peppers

Sauce
2 large cans of tomatoes, blended
3 small dried peppers
2 tsp salt
1 tsp diced garlic
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano

Filling
2 T olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 lb ground beef
2 C cooked rice
2 eggs

3 large red peppers
Mozzarella cheese

Cut the peppers in half vertically and remove the stems and seeds. Place in a pot of heavily salted boiling water until the peppers are tender. Don’t rush this step! Raw peppers won’t be nearly as tasty.

Blend the sauce ingredients together and place in a saucepot. Simmer.

Add the olive oil to a saute pan and sweat the onions on low until they are translucent. When ready, add to a bowl with the beef, rice, and eggs, and half of the sauce. Mix well with your hands.

When the peppers are tender, remove from the boiling water and place, cavity side up, in a casserole dish. Stuff the peppers with the meat filling, then pour the remaining sauce all over the top. Top with grated mozzarella cheese and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.