A group of stragglers lay in the crisper of the fridge: those last minute green peppers that kept calling out to be used in something, anything. I know many of you out there also have that final group of peppers, right at this moment, calling out to you. Are you going to slice them up and freeze them? Put them on a pizza, in some chili, or in a batch of spaghetti sauce? There are so many great things to be done with green peppers, but one of my personal favorites has to be…STUFFED!

I’ve made many a stuffed pepper in my life, and there are a ton of delicious stuffed pepper recipes out there. I like this one because it’s so very simple. I usually have all these ingredients on hand. The recipe makes a lot of stuffing, more than I needed for the peppers, but that’s ok. I ate the stuffing on its own for a couple of lunches; it’s a tasty meal on its own. Enjoy!

Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

4-6 medium peppers

2 T. olive oil

1 c. brown rice (I used 3/4 c. brown rice, 1/4 c. pearl barley)

2 c. vegetable broth

1 small red onion

1 clove garlic

7 oz canned chopped tomatoes

pinch each of dried thyme, parsley and rosemary

1/2 c. peas (can thaw from frozen)

salt and pepper

 

1. First cook the rice in the vegetable broth and 1/2 c. of water. Either cook in a pot using instructions on rice package or use a rice cooker. Assemble all your other recipe ingredients while the rice cooks. Brown rice can take a bit to cook. So find a good book and put up your feet. 🙂

 

2. Turn oven on to 400 degrees F. Wash and dry peppers, put them on a baking sheet and brush lightly with olive oil (I misted them with olive oil using a mister, click here to see). Bake peppers for 12 minutes.

 

3. Let peppers cool on the pan enough so that you can slice them in half, remove stems and seeds. Lay them, open side up, on the baking sheet.

 

4. Peel and dice the onion. Pour 1 T. olive oil in pan, bring it to medium heat, and throw the diced onions in. After 3 or 4 minutes, mince the garlic and add it to the onion. Cook for another minute, then add the tomatoes, herbs and a little salt and pepper. Let the mixture bubble and simmer on med/low heat for about 5 minutes. Add the rice and peas to this mixture, then spoon into the halves of pepper.

 

5. Put the stuffed peppers into the preheated oven for 10 minutes. For extra flavor, sprinkle shredded cheese of your choice on top of each pepper after the 10 minutes are up, switch the oven to broil, and broil for 3-4 minutes or until cheese is beautiful and bubbly.