Beef and Rice Stuffed Peppers

• Meat

  • 2 tbsp Bacon, smoked
  • 1 lb Ground beef

• Produce

  • 1 Bay leaf
  • 2 Garlic cloves
  • 1/4 tsp Garlic powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp Parsley flakes
  • 8 Red or yellow bell peppers, small
  • 1/3 cup Yellow onion

• Condiments

  • 1 1/2 cup Tomato sauce

• Pasta & Grains

  • 1 cup White rice

• Baking & Spices

  • 1/2 tsp Black pepper
  • 1 tbsp Flour
  • 2 tsp Kosher salt, coarse
  • 1 tsp Paprika, smoked
  • 1/2 tsp Sugar

• Oils & Vinegars

  • 1 tbsp Sunflower oil

Found on foodsmartmom.com

Description

Directions

• Coat a large skillet with oil and heat it over medium heat. Sauté onion for a few minutes until golden before adding carrot. Allow carrot to soften then add bacon and beef. Crumble the beef with a fork and cook for several minutes to brown it. When the meat loses its raw red color, add 1 ½ tsp salt, black pepper, smoked paprika, parsley flakes, and garlic powder. Stir well and scrape any brown bits off the bottom of the pan.
• Stir in rice and fry it until it becomes translucent. Add the fresh garlic and cook for 30 seconds then remove the pot from heat. Let it cool while you prepare peppers.
• Rinse and dry the peppers, cut the tops off each pepper and set aside. Remove all seeds from the inside of the pepper and flip it on its side. Carefully cut a very thin slice off the bottom of the pepper. You don’t want to cut too deep and have a hole in the bottom of the pepper. You only need to cut a tiny bit to level the bottom so it sits flat and to remove just enough skin from the bottom so the steam from the bottom of the pan can enter the pepper and help cook the meat.
• Place a heavy-bottom, preferably a 6-quart, stockpot on the stovetop. Coat the bottom with a few tablespoons of tomato sauce dissolved with cold water.
• Using a spoon, fill each pepper loosely with the mixture of beef and rice all the way to the top. Avoid pounding the mixture in too hard as the rice needs some room to expand, and the meat could also end up caked if. Don’t worry if you have extra meat mixture, just spread it around the pot, between the peppers, it will make for a delicious sauce.
• Stand the first filled pepper in the middle of pot and surround it with remaining ones.
• Once you have all peppers in the pot, mix oat flour, and ½ tsp salt, with the rest of tomato sauce, dissolve with some water, and add to the pot. Top off with just enough water or chicken stock to barely submerge peppers. Toss in the bay leaf, too. Cover each pepper with a cut off top you saved.
• Turn the heat on and bring it to a gentle boil, then reduce heat to medium, place the lid slightly askew and maintain a slow simmer for an hour and half.
• Serve hot.