”You have to taste a culture to understand it.”

– Deborah Cater

Bell peppers filled with meat and rice

Filled peppers is one of those comfort dishes for me which tastes even better the next days after cooking, therefore I like to bake more of them in one go and have the peppers ready for several meals – lunch or dinner. That way I also save time on cooking.

The recipe is easy to adjust and does not need to be strictly followed. I change the amount of meat, rice and carrots depending on the amounts of these ingredients I have available and if I want to have more meat or rice in the filling.

Step by step video tutorial
Serving Size:
6 filled peppers
Time:
Prep time: 30 min
Bake time: 90 min
Difficulty:
Medium

Ingredients

  • 6 bell peppers (about 1 kg)
  • 200 g / 1 cup rice
  • 2 medium carrots (about 180 g)
  • 1 small onion
  • 5 garlic cloves
  • 1 egg
  • 500 g / 1 lbs ground meat (beef and pork)
  • 100 g / 0.4 cups cooking cream
  • 100 g / 0.4 cups tomato sauce (pureed tomato)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1 tsp thyme
  • 2 tsp paprika powder
  • about 200 ml / 2/3 cup water

Directions

  1. Grease a casserole dish with a bit of cooking oil. Any size oven suitable dish, which fits the bell peppers, is fine. If you have one with a lid, it’s even better.
  2. Clean the bell peppers by removing the stem part and seeds. Shake out the seeds as much as possible and wash the peppers.
  3. Wash the rice, changing water several times, till the water is somewhat clear. Por water over the rice and let them soak while preparing the filling.
  4. Peel, wash and cut the onion in small cubes.
  5. Peel, wash and grate the carrots.
  6. Peel, wash and chop or press the garlic cloves.
  7. Put ground meet in a big bowl. Add to it the onion, carrot, garlic and an egg.
  8. Drain and add the rice in the bowl as well.
  9. Add also the spices – salt, pepper, thyme and ground paprika powder, as well as half of the cooking cream and tomato sauce, and mix everything well.
  10. Set the oven to heat to 200° Celsius or 430° Fahrenheit.
  11. Fill the peppers, pressing lightly to make sure also the sides of the peppers are filled. To avoid putting too much filling in one pepper and not have enough left for the last one, fill the peppers gradually, distributing the filling somewhat equally.
  12. Add a bit of water to the cooking cream, mix and pour it over the peppers and in the casserole dish. The same with the tomato sauce (puree). The liquid should be a few centimetres deep in the bottom of the casserole dish. Add a little more water if needed.
  13. Cover the dish with a piece of aluminium foil (or lid) and put in the oven to bake for about 90 minutes till the peppers look softened and meat and rice cooked.
  14. Remove the aluminium foil from the top a few minutes before finishing to bake if you want the peppers to roast a little.
  15. And enjoy!

Notes

  • You can use any white rice you like. I usually use whatever rice at have at home.
  • Change the amount of rice and meat as you like. For example, if you want to have more meat in the filling, reduce the amount of rice or the other way round.