4/29/09 | Leftovers: Stuffed Peppers
[ Currently Eating: Funny BLT Sandwicho ]
So it ain’t the prettiest of meals, these leftover Stuffed Bell Peppers. But they’ll do in a pinch for lunch the next day. We make stuffed cabbage more frequently than the peppers, since we have extra cabbage more frequentlyin the fridge. But when there’s a sale on green bell peppers, we usually plan a stuffed pepper night. And the next day I’m rewarded with Leftovers for Lunch.
Lately, I’ve been on a ground turkey kick - previously we’d go with a mixture of 2 parts ground beef to 1 part ground pork. But I’ve found the ground turkey works just as well - you can also mix it with the pork to give it some tenderness, but it’s not really necessary. We add cooked rice and sauteed onions (cooked until they’re very soft) to make the meatball interior mixture less dry. Maybe add some bread crumbs, toss in an egg or two for binding power. Fill up the peppers, add tomatoes and tomato paste (or tomato paste diluted with water) plus chicken stock and throw it in a big pot. That’s pretty much it.
The next day, the stuffed peppers will sometimes taste better now that the flavors have had a longer chance to meld. Inevitably, you’ll have some “pepper” breakdown - they can get a little mushy and the meatball mixture tends to fall out of the pepper. That never bothered me, though. It becomes more of a tomato pepper meatball stew, which is fine with me for a quick lunch the next day.
April 29th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Grew up on stuffed peppers and I love them! I add sauerkraut to mine for extra kick.
And mashed potatoes on the side, very heavy meal but totally fantastic.
April 29th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
@andrea - my mom is a total sauerkraut fanatic. If you can imagine Americanized Japanese food with sauerkraut thrown into the mix occasionally - well, that’s what we got. I love mashed potatoes too, never thought to have it with stuffed peppers though. Sounds like a plan for the next time!
April 29th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Ya gotta gotta gotta have mashed taters with stuffed peppers & stuffed cabbage! What else would you do with all that tomato-ey gravy goodness? We like to put a little brown sugar, vinegar and Worcestershire sauce in the tomato sauce for a sweet/sour taste. Also sometimes I use a box of Uncle Ben’s wild rice mix (seasoning and all) to flavor up the meat
Yum! Love your blog 
April 30th, 2009 at 9:01 am
What a small world it is! I’m having leftover stuffed peppers today too.
I made mine with what I had on hand - leftover rice, ground sausage, a jar of marinara sauce and some grated cheese. YUMMY!
April 30th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
@henrietta - we usually have stuffed peppers with rice on the side to soak up the tomato gravy, but next time I’m going to try the taters instead!
@cyn - I never tried ground sausage, but that sounds pretty interesting too.
May 1st, 2009 at 8:30 pm
I am all about leftovers. Sometimes, I think the flavor is better the next day, especially for homemade soups.
May 2nd, 2009 at 7:22 pm
@theskinnyplate - I totally agree about the flavors improving for certain foods - definitely soups and stews. I also find it true for pasta salad. It just seems like the flavors meld together better.
May 3rd, 2009 at 9:11 am
Mmmm.. Try em with ground lamb. So good!
May 30th, 2009 at 7:28 am
I recently came up with this recipe… we usually make the stuffed peppers in a kind of gravy. i take the peppers and cut them into slices and use the rice and meat filling use that as a enchilada filling. i add a little bit of cheese in the middle and roll it up. then use the gravy as the sauce that goes over it with a little bit more cheese. an excellent way of turning stuffed peppers into a kind of mexican dish i guess, haha. but very good
July 2nd, 2009 at 6:12 pm
I grew up in South Louisiana, and I consider the Cajun version of stuffed bellpeppers the best variant. There’s no tomato sauce in the ones I grew up with. The best way to convey what the filling is like is Popeye’s dirty rice. But the homemade version of that (which, incidentally, a true Cajun would NEVER refer to as “dirty rice”. We call it Rice Dressing.), is so much better. Also, they’re topped with a thick layer of bread crumbs before cooking, which becomes a crispy crust on top.