Who doesn’t love Classic Stuffed Bell Peppers this time of year? Mary Harp from Healthy Christian Home combines sweet and savory flavor in her family favorite recipe.
Stuffed Bell Peppers always seem to hit the spot, no matter the time of the year. Even on cooler days in the month of February, this delicious, homemade dish can warm you up and keep you cozy.
Mary Harp from Healthy Christian Home has a recipe for Classic Stuffed Bell Peppers that has all the cheesy goodness we love, along with a touch of sweetness from Pure Flavor® Sweet Bell Peppers.
This recipe is flavorful, filling and healthy too – all thanks to greenhouse grown Sweet Bell Peppers. They contain more Vitamin C than an orange, which can help keep your immune system ready to fight infections and viruses. These peppers are also a good source of Vitamin K, a nutrient that can help strengthen your bones and reduce the risk of fractures, and iron, a mineral that promotes good circulation and a healthy heart.
If you love the flavor of Sweet Bell Peppers and want to enjoy all the amazing health benefits, Aurora Bites Mini Sweet Peppers are a convenient bite-sized pepper you can take with you for some healthy snacking.
Pure Flavor® grows Red, Yellow and Orange Sweet Bell Peppers in sustainable greenhouses all year long – even in the middle of the winter. Thanks to advanced greenhouse growing technology, it doesn’t matter what the weather is outside because these plants get all the healthy nutrients they need to thrive indoors.
Everything from the temperature controlled climate of the greenhouse, to the closed loop irrigation system, which recycles unused water, and to the recycled growing mediums Pure Flavor® uses all contribute to growing these peppers in an eco-friendly, sustainable way.
Pure Flavor® combines all that state-of-the-art technology with some tried-and-true vegetable growing techniques, benefiting from the best of both worlds. As part of Pure Flavor®’s Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program, they use good bugs like Ladybugs to take away the bad bugs in a natural way. Ladybugs are just one type of beneficial bugs that Pure Flavor® uses to keep the plants healthy and pest free.
Not only does all this mean Pure Flavor’s® Sweet Bell Peppers taste great – it means you can enjoy fresh Stuffed Peppers any time of the year.
Sweet Bell Peppers are the most important component of Classic Stuffed Bell Peppers – of course, it’s in the name! The sweetness inside each one is the perfect complement to the savory flavor of tomato sauce, ground beef and sausage, or really any type of protein you would like to try.
To get the classic, mouthwatering look of this dish perfect, you need to have a good mix of yellow, orange and Sweet Bell Peppers. With golden stuffing peeking out the top, melted cheese draping over the edges and an accent of green onions on top, it’s a feast for the eyes that instantly makes you feel cozy at home.
With this Classic Stuffed Bell Peppers recipe, Mary incorporates all the great flavors you love while making a few small changes to simply and save time! If you’ve ever made stuffed peppers before, you know the first step: chop off the top of those delicious Sweet Bell Peppers and hollow them out, removing any seeds and white ribs inside.
Some recipes ask you to boil the peppers first, but there’s a much simpler way to pre-cook and soften them before adding your stuffing. All you have to do is heat up your oven to 400°F, place all the peppers top-down in a casserole dish filled with a half-inch of water, and then bake them for twenty minutes. By steaming the peppers this way, you get the texture you want while keeping them strong enough to hold all that amazing stuffing – and you keep all the flavor locked inside!
While your Sweet Bell Peppers are in the oven, add olive oil to a large skillet on medium heat and sauté onions and diced mushrooms for several minutes before adding ground beef and sausage. Mary uses this flavorful mix of beef and sausage because, as she says, “it adds an extra depth of flavor you can’t get otherwise”. Of course, if you prefer, ground chicken or turkey will work too – it’s all about what flavors your family enjoys the most.
To your skillet, add salt, pepper and garlic as the meat browns and then drain the excess grease before adding diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, cooked rice and Italian seasoning.
About now it should be time to remove your steamed Sweet Bell Peppers from the oven. Drain any water in the peppers and reduce the heat to 350°F on your oven. Now you can start stuffing your peppers, but make sure to leave room at the top. One common mistake people make is to overstuff the peppers, which results in an unevenly cooked dish, not to mention a bit of a mess when they start to overflow!
Mary then covers her stuffed peppers with a spoonful of tomato sauce before covering with shredded mozzarella cheese. These amazing Classic Stuffed Peppers are now ready to be baked. After about a half-hour, they should be ready to enjoy.
To make Mary’s Classic Stuffed Bell Peppers recipe for your family, click here.
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