Stuffed Peppers

 

When I was a little girl, we used to stuff any kind of vegetable, but my favorite was  stuffed peppers. Of course, back then, we used to stuff green peppers. Today, grocery stores carry peppers in all shapes, sizes and colours and they are all perfect stuffing candidates. You can choose to cut the top off the pepper and keep it as a little hat or cut the peppers across and make stuffed pepper boats (as in the picture). For stuffing, we use our dirty rice recipe (below).

 

Ingredients:
 

4 large peppers or 6 long ones

1 cup of rice, cooked (long grain or instant)

4 sausages

1 small onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 green pepper, diced

1 celery stalk, diced

1 1/2 TBSP Tunisian Harissa powder

1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. and 1 pinch of salt

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Water

1/3 cup grated cheese of choice

Directions:

 

Prepare the peppers

 

Cut across version:  Cut your peppers in half and remove the seeds.

Little hat version: Slice the top off the peppers carefully and remove the seeds. Keep the top portion (hat).

 

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 1 tsp. salt. Immerse the peppers (and hats, if applicable) in boiling water and cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove from water making sure to empty the cavity of any water. Peppers should remain firm and not be fully cooked.

 

Prepare the stuffing

Open each sausage casing and add meat to a skillet. Cook on medium-low heat making sure to break up the meat with a spoon. When the meat is almost fully cooked, add the onion, garlic, green pepper, celery and a pinch of salt. Cook for 2-3 minutes until the onion is translucent, the celery is soft and the meat is fully cooked. Add the pre-cooked rice, Tunisian Harissa powder, about 2 TBSP water, freshly ground pepper and Worcestershire sauce. Mix everything together and cook another 2-3 minutes. Your mixture should not be soupy but have a tiny bit of sauce.

 

Pre-heat the oven at 375 degrees.

 

Fill each pepper to the brim with the stuffing. Place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Top with little hat (if applicable) and grated cheese. Add 1 TBSP

water to the baking sheet. Cook the peppers for 20-30 minutes.

 

Bon apettit!