I can't find a recipe online for the Pepper Stuffed Peppers from Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes, and I don't feel like typing it, but the recipe is delicious and easy to modify. I've made these stuffed peppers at least three times before, so I thought I had a good handle on it.
The original recipe called for acini de pepe, which means peppercorns in Italian and looks exactly like that (oh the irony of pepper stuffed peppers!), but I didn't have any on hand so I used a third of a cup of orzo.
Meanwhile, I sauteed one Vidalia onion, one zucchini, one jalapeno (with seeds), a clove of garlic and half a pound of mushrooms. The original recipe calls for three or four cherry peppers and no mushrooms.
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| STEAM! |
After the veggies have softened, you throw in half a cup of tomato sauce and simmer for ten minutes. Then toss with the orzo, parsley and sausage mixture.
You have to parboil the bell peppers prior to stuffing them, which is kind of annoying, and I guess if you don't mind that your peppers are more crisp, you can omit this step. I actually wish I had parboiled mine a bit longer than four minutes.
STUFF THEM!
BREADCRUMB THEM!
Put them in the oven for about half an hour at 375 degrees. Simmer a pot of tomato sauce to top the stuffed peppers once they are finished. I put mushrooms and extra parsley in my jarred tomato sauce, which is never as good as homemade, but fast and easy and not really all that bad.
And then eat.
This is a bit much for a weeknight dinner if you haven't done enough prep the day before. I had diced the onion and zucchini yesterday, but everything else had to be diced or chopped and cooked today AND cooled - the orzo, the peppers, the veggie sausage, and the stuffing mixture. You can stuff a hot parboiled pepper with hot stuffing. You'll burn your little fingers, and I've already sliced and diced two of my fingers in the past few months.
Three pots, two burners, two rounds of the oven, and then you will eat like a champion.
