Rainbow Stuffed Peppers

Is that pesky pyrazine ruining stuffed peppers for you? Swap red for green and this speedy no-bake hack will make them into a 20 minute weeknight dinner everyone will love.

There are two common issues that keep people from making traditional stuffed peppers.

1. The green peppers.
2. It takes a long time to bake.

I’m about to change all that for you. Here comes Rainbow Stuffed Peppers in about 20 minutes.

Green Peppers

If you hate all bell peppers, or know someone who does, here’s why:

The aroma so familiar and typical for a green bell pepper is due almost entirely to a single substance: 2-methoxy-3-isobutylpyrazine. The human nose is able to detect this “pepper-scented” compound at the almost unbelievably dilute aqueous concentration of 0.002 parts-per-trillion (i.e., 2:1,000,000,000,000). This means that the so-called bell pepper pyrazine is, for humans, among the very most odor-intense substances known.¹

I’m not even going to try to sell haters on the green bell peppers. If you like red bell peppers, however, it’s probably because they are ripe. Green peppers are unripe. Weird I know, but part of not liking green peppers is that unripe bitterness.

Wine note: pyrazine is a chemical compound found in bell peppers and some wines. This green, vegetal flavor in wine can be considered a flaw from unripe grapes. Of course, there are also wines that are appreciated for a hint of bell pepper. Because no one in wine can ever agree on anything. Where would the fun be in that?

The Fast and The Furious

The trick to bringing these babies to the table in 20 minutes instead of an hour, is the quick little nuke or blanch you do to the peppers. Then they just get a little broiler love to make the cheese nice and gooey, melty, browned.

Side Dish Recommendation: Between the protein, veg and grain this really is a complete meal so round out with a salad if you want more.

Wine Pairing: Go with a dry rose with a hint of bell pepper. Surprisingly enough, when you pair like flavors, they tend to cancel out and then you can appreciate the other flavors.

Chef Shelley

Rainbow Stuffed Peppers

I keep a stockpile of cooked rice in the freezer. You can also make rice while you cook the other ingredients, which will add some time to the recipe, or use cous cous which is super fast to make. If you don’t want to nuke the peppers, you can blanch them in boiling water for three minutes or until the texture you prefer. You can skip making the sauce and use jarred marinara or if you don’t care about sauce just squirt some ketchup on each pepper before you add the cheese or skip it altogether.

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Prep Time 3 minutes mins

Cook Time 17 minutes mins

Total Time 20 minutes mins

Servings: 4

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• 12 ounces 90% ground beef or 93% ground turkey 99% ground turkey is dry
• 3 medium cloves garlic minced
• 1 can 14 ½ ounces petite diced tomatoes
• 1 cup cooked rice
• 3 medium bell peppers halved from top to bottom, stems and seeds removed
• 15 oz can tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 teaspoons Better Thank Bullion roasted beef base
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella jack or cheddar cheese or more if you want it really cheesy

Method

 

1. Heat a 12” skillet over medium high heat. Cook ground beef breaking up until no longer pink, about 5 minutes.
2. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
3. Add tomatoes and then cook until moisture evaporates, 4ish minutes.
4. Meanwhile, microwave peppers in a covered glass bowl for about 2 ½ minutes or until desired tenderness (I like them firm/tender).
5. Stir in rice into pan.
6. Fill peppers with beef and rice mixture.
7. Add tomato sauce, water, beef base and brown sugar to pan and boil for two-ish minutes.
8. Preheat broiler.
9. Pour sauce over peppers
10. Top peppers with cheese and broil until nice and melted, 3ish minutes..

1.  The Biochemistry of Peppers Author: Klaus Roth, pub. 06 May 2014 Source-Publisher: Chemie in unserer Zeit/Wiley-VCH Copyright: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA