Beef & Rice Stuffed Bell Peppers – AKA: Betcha Can’t Eat Just One!

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Sometimes you just want a nice comfort food that’s tasty and fills you up, but you don’t want to feel like a bloated mess afterwards. And who doesn’t like ground beef and rice?

Here, I am providing the answer to this dilemma with a Bovine and Oryza sativa delivery vessel in the form of an Capsicum annum of the ‘Bell’ subtype. For those of you unfamiliar with these types of nomenclature, I’ll provide you with less ostentatious lay-terms. “I’ve got a way to fill your mouth with some food.”

This is a rather simple recipe that can be used for a get-together, or as food prep for the week. It’s got your protein along with some healthy fats, complex carbohydrates, and fiber. And since this is me, it’s got a slight kick to it, or I wouldn’t bother making it. Enough of this exposition, let’s get to it!

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Serving Size: 4-8…or 4 Mes or up to 8 less hungry people

• 2 lbs. 85/15 Ground Beef
• 1/2 of 1 large Red Onion, diced
• 3 Jalapenos, diced
• 2 tsp. Onion Powder
• 2 tsp. Garlic Powder
• 2 tsp. Cayenne Powder
• 1 tsp. Cumin
• 1 Tbsp. Dark Brown Sugar (Light will do.)
• 1 1/2 tsp. Sea Salt
• 1/2 tsp. Ground Black Pepper
• 4 Medium-Large Bell Peppers (Get colorful…)
• 3/4 Cup Long Grain White Rice
• 1 1/2 Cup Water
• 1 1/2 tsp. Beef ‘Better Than Bouillon’

(This whole recipe can be halved for a smaller batch)

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1.) Start by getting a large mixing bowl and pour in your ground beef. I chose 85/15 instead of my usual 80/20 because I felt that when it cooked inside the pepper, there would be too much grease. I love the flavor of 80/20 just like the next guy, but you gotta know when to use the other percentage blends as well. (For all intents and purposes, if all you’ve got is 80/20, that’ll do just fine).

Next, get your favorite cutting board and get slicing and dicing! Peel and halve your onion and then dice up one half and add to the beef. Remove the stems from the jalapenos and then dice those as well and throw ’em in. Add your measured amounts of onion, garlic, and cayenne powders and cumin. When you cook with cumin, it’s easy for your recipe ‘containing’ cumin to become your recipe ‘of’ cumin. I put less in there so it wouldn’t overpower the other flavors. Dash it up with some salt and pepper too.

2.) Next, you’ll want to cook the rice. The way I like to do it is to heat up some water in a kettle. Measure out your rice, and put it in your pot. Once your water is hot, but not boiling, put 1 1/2 teaspoons of Better than Bouillon in the measuring cup and then pour in your water. Mix up the salty paste until blended with the water, and add to the pot with rice. Add your clump of tomato paste as well and mix. You’re going to want to only par-cook the rice, so cook it until you feel that it’s about 7/10’s of the way there. Yeah, that’s hard to quantify, but use your best judgement. for example: if you generally cook it for 10 minutes, cook it for 7. The rice will finish cooking when everything is put together. Once you’re done cooking, let it cool a bit before handling.

3.) Now, preheat your oven to 400 F. Get a small to medium baking dish or something similar and line with aluminum foil. While your oven is still preheating, combine the rice and beef and mix well.

4.) It’s time to core out those bell peppers. Slice them in half length-wise and core them out with a small pairing knife if necessary.

Fill your peppers with a heaping amount of the beef and rice. Make sure all the nooks and crannies are filled because the filling will shrink when it cooks, so you don’t want any gaps in there.

5.) Pile your peppers into the baking dish and put them into the oven on the middle rack for 1 whole hour! Don’t touch ’em! There was a commercial when I was small where a little kid was anxious to eat something his grandma was making, and she said “Good food takes time…”, making him wait until it was done. I don’t remember what the product was (I’ve been hit in the head a lot), but I remember that line and its somewhat Yoda-esque delivery.

Once they’re done, take them out and add some parsley and grated cheese if you wish and thoroughly enjoy these savory and sweet treats!