Stuffed Green Peppers



My mother would make this old family favorite every autumn.  Each autumn when the weather starts cooling down I start craving for this dish.  This recipe was develop from  Hungarian Stuffed Cabbage Rolls and it is still very good using cabbage leave instead of green peppers.  Be sure to parboil 8 to 10 outer cabbage leaves if you prefer cabbage to green peppers. 

My grandmother on my Mom's side migrated from Hungary and I believe this recipe came from that side of the family. 

I served the stuffed peppers with the sauce over rice.  The two side dishes are baked Delicata winter squash and steamed green beans from my garden.

Enjoy!

Stuffed Green Peppers

Ingredients

8 to 10 medium green peppers, approximately 1 to 1½-inch diameter

Meat Mixture:
1/3 cup uncooked brown rice
1 pound ground beef 
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon thyme
a dash or two of pepper
1 large chopped onion
1 beaten egg

Sauce:
1 quart whole or chopped tomatoes
 3 tablespoon meat paste or powder
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 chopped onion
2 tablespoon chopped parsley
1/8 teaspoon salt
1½ tablespoon corn starch
       mixed with water

Put 1/3 cup rice with 2/3 cup water and bring to a boil then cover turn down to a simmer until rice adsorbs all the liquid.  While the rice is cooking, cut the green peppers' tops off and clean out the seeds.  Set the pepper aside. 

Once the rice is finished cooking add the rice to the meat mixture.  Thoroughly mixture the ingredients together.  Pack the meat mixture into the green pepper cavities round off at the opening.

Add olive oil to a Dutch Oven; add onions and cook until golden.  Blend half the tomatoes.  Add the blended and whole/chopped tomatoes to the onion.  Add meat paste/powder, salt and parsley.  Bring to a simmer and add the stuffed peppers.  Cover the Dutch oven and simmer for one hour.  Turn green pepper occasionally while simmering.   Blend corn starch with water and add to thicken sauce.

Serve stuffed pepper with sauce over rice.

Makes 8 to 10 servings.

 

Hint: I used Penzey Spices Beef Soup base and seasoning for the meat paste.  It made a very rich tomato sauce.