Ten Hens Farm

We love stuffed peppers because they are easy, versatile and oh so good.  I'll share the nuts and bolts recipe and then you take the liberty to switch it up - vary the type of peppers, meat, and veggies.

Ingredients:

4 green bell peppers, halved and cleaned*

1 pound ground beef (or ground lamb, or ground venison)

chopped veggies - 1 onion, 1 eggplant, 1 zucchini, 1 summer squash, 2-3 tomatoes

2 cups cleaned fresh mushrooms

fresh herbs, chopped - oregano, parsley, basil and chives

1 cup cooked white rice

I jar marinara

cheese - Parmesan, mozzarella, chedder, or whatever you like

olive oil

salt and pepper

Directions:

Peppers...Bring a pot of salted water to boil.  You're going to use this to blanch your peppers, so it's good to get it started and then you can throw them in when you're in the middle of your recipe.  Once the water comes to a boil, just drop the peppers in and cook until tender.  Place in a baking dish to be stuffed.

Stuffing...Saute ground meat and onion, add oil if you need it.  Once the meat is nicely browned, add eggplant, zucchini, and summer squash and continue cooking over medium heat until tender.  Add tomatoes and mushrooms and cook for a couple minutes.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Add fresh herbs.  Stir in cooked rice.  Add the jar of marinara and cook until heated through.  Stuff peppers. 

Bake...At this point, I believe the recipe calls for topping with shredded cheese and baking.  We never make it to this step, so just skip the baking and serve.  You choose if you'd like to bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes until the cheese is nice and ooey. 

Eat!         

* Some people choose to cut the stem out of the top of the pepper, clean them and stuff from the top.  We used to do it that way, but for some reason have switched to halving them.  You choose which way you like.  And, remember, you can use any type of pepper for this - red, yellow, orange or purple bell, Hungarian wax, banana, etc.