Stuffed Peppers

The past week or so, I have harvested almost two dozen green bell peppers! I fried a few of these peppers with onions (yes, the ones from my garden) to go with steak. I added some peppers to my scrambled eggs. I added a couple to my salads. Yet, I still had a dozen left. What did I do with them? I made stuffed peppers. In fact, I used almost all of them because stuffed peppers are great to reheat – instant lunch for work. If you’ve never had stuffed peppers, you won’t know what you’re missing until you try this easy-to-make dish.

STUFFED PEPPERS

10-12 green bell peppers
3 lb ground beef
2 large eggs
2-3 cloves garlic, diced fine
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dried parsley
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 cup breadcrumbs, give or take

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Cut the tops off the peppers and carefully remove the seeds and pith.

Pepper cut for stuffing

3. Place ground beef in a large mixing bowl. Add both eggs, the garlic, and the spices.

Ground beef with eggs, garlic & spices

4. Add about a half cup of the breadcrumbs and mix into the beef with a fork to begin with. Now here’s where you’ll have to get your hands dirty. Begin mixing and kneading the meat mixture until all the breadcrumbs are mixed in. Continue adding breadcrumbs a tablespoon or two at a time (you don’t have to measure it – just eyeball it) and knead in. Continue adding breadcrumbs until the meat mixture no longer feels slimy from the eggs. You don’t want to add too much breadcrumbs, though, or the meat will taste mealy after it’s cooked.

Ground beef mixture ~ ready to stuff peppers

5. Gently stuff each pepper with the meat mixture, carefully pushing the meat all the way to the bottom. The pepper should be full, and the meat should come to the top of the pepper. Place each pepper on a cookie sheet. (No need to grease the cookie sheet; the fat from the ground beef will ooze out of the peppers.)

Stuffed peppers uncooked

6. Put cookie sheet in preheated oven and bake 50-60 minutes, until meat is fully cooked and peppers start to wrinkle and turn brown.

Serve with rice and salad or any other sides. They’re even good by themselves!

NOTE: Remember the tops you cut off the peppers? No need to throw the entire tops into your compost pile. Cut around the stem and save the pieces for frying or adding to a salad or omelet.