These are the best stuffed peppers, I think, because of the searing step. I don’t even know why it makes such a difference, but my mother always seared her peppers first, and, I have noticed, when you skip that step you miss out on a major flavour bonus.

I’ve had a number of people tell me these are the best they’ve ever had, and that gives me confidence and delight to share them with you! These are so simple, so quick, and so easy to adjust as you need to; this recipe comes from mothers teaching their daughters for many years, and I’ve just written it out finally to share it with you. It’s really basic, but oh-so-good.
We made these for Hospitality Sunday to serve about 20 people, with good sour cream to put on top, mashed potatoes on the side, and a nice fresh salad to complete the meal. They were a big hit!
I’ve made the recipe a little smaller on here for you, since I’m guessing most people who make these aren’t going to be cooking for 20+ people. If I’m wrong on that, feel free to double, triple, or quadruple the recipe, and just throw them all into a big roasting pan to be baked.
A note before I get into this, did you know that you can freeze bell peppers? You can if you’re going to cook them! They lose all of their fresh crisp-ness when you freeze them, but since they lose that in cooking anyway, it works well to freeze them if they’re destined to be cooked/baked/barbecued/etc.

I tend to get more peppers than I can use at one time when the price is right, and then I core them and freeze them, ready to be grilled in the summer or stuffed for quick meal.

So yes, if you were wondering: You can freeze bell peppers. I do it all the time.

Stuffed Peppers
Makes about 7-8 small-medium peppers

Ingredients:
7-8 sm.-med. bell peppers (whatever colour you have on hand)*
1-1/4 lbs. lean ground beef
1-1/8 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 c. rice cooked in 1/2 c. water (or 1 c. cooked rice)
1 egg**
1/2 sm. onion, diced
1 c. tomato sauce, tomato juice, or diced tomatoes (+salt, pepper, and garlic powder to season)
*Any colour of bell pepper will work for this, but since the green ones tend to be more bitter, I like to use the sweeter peppers for this – red, orange or yellow are all great.
**I normally make 4x this amount and I still only do 1 egg – The egg just helps the mixture to stick together better, and you don’t really need more eggs than that for a larger amount. I’m all about saving a little money here and there, so I say- if you don’t need it, don’t use it! 

Directions:
(1) First, cook your rice. My recipe says you should cook the rice in an equal amount of water so that the rice maintains a bit of crunch. It will cook the rest of the way when you bake the peppers, don’t worry!

If you have some leftover cooked rice on hand, feel free to use that instead; it will work fine, though it isn’t my preference for this recipe.

(2) Next, wash the peppers and remove the stems and seeds.

(3) In a large stainless steel mixing bowl, combine the ground beef, measured salt and pepper, cooked rice, egg, and diced onion. Mix to combine, and stuff into the prepared peppers.

(4) Sear the peppers in a hot frying pan with a bit of oil, just until they get a nice caramely/blackish skin. Use tongs or 2 forks to turn them over, searing on at least 2 sides of each pepper.

(5) Season your tomato sauce lightly with salt, pepper, and garlic (to your taste), place the peppers into a baking dish with a lid, and pour the tomato product on top.
Note: In a pinch, you can use unseasoned tomato product as well, but I find that adding a bit of seasoning brings out a bit more flavour, and it doesn’t take too much time.
(6) Cover the peppers with a lid and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes to 1 hour or until cooked through and very hot (it will take longer if you are making a larger batch). This size recipe makes 6-8 servings.
Let me know how they turn out, ok? Thanks for stopping by.Suzanne

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