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Stuffed peppers with tomato paste in a saucepan

Stuffed peppers with tomato paste in a saucepan

Make a tasty, colorful, and filling dish quickly and easily. Just about everyone has tried stuffed bell peppers at least once. In late summer and fall, when peppers are at their cheapest and best, this dish shows up on the table all the time. It brings together meat, rice, and vegetables, so you won't need any side dish with it.

Maria

Recipe author

Stuffed peppers with tomato paste in a saucepan

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Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Bell pepper (large, in mixed colors, or 4-5 small ones)

Minced meat

400

Rice

Garlic (dried)

0.5

Ground black pepper

Salt

Water

600

Tomato paste

Celery stalk

Bay leaf

Allspice

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 21 % 4 g

Fats 47 % 9 g

Carbohydrates 32 % 6 g

120 kcal

GI: 33 / 67 / 0

Cooking method

Step 1:

Gather the ingredients for the dish. You'll want large bell peppers — firm, not limp. It's best to use peppers in different colors so the finished dish looks bright and pretty.
Step 2:

Wash the bell peppers well, cut off the tops, and remove the seeds. Don't toss the tops — you'll use them to cap the stuffed peppers later. If your peppers are small, you may need 4–5 of them for this amount of filling.
Step 3:

Gather the ingredients for the filling. You can use a single kind of meat or poultry (chicken, beef, or pork, say) or a blend. Mine is a mix of pork and beef. You can swap the dried garlic for two cloves of fresh garlic put through a press.
Step 4:

Rinse the rice in cold water, drain it in a sieve, and let it dry.
Step 5:

In a bowl, combine the ground meat with the rice, dried garlic, salt, and pepper.
Step 6:

Mix everything together thoroughly.
Step 7:

Stuff the bell peppers with the filling.
Step 8:

Gather everything for the sauce. It's usually based on tomato paste thinned with water, but I'd suggest tossing a celery stalk into the pot too. It makes the sauce wonderfully fragrant and adds an interesting depth of flavor.
Step 9:

Wash the celery stalk and cut it into pieces. The size doesn't matter much — they just need to fit between the peppers.
Step 10:

Stir the tomato paste into the water and mix well until smooth.
Step 11:

Stand the peppers upright in the bottom of a pot. They should sit snugly against each other so they don't tip over. I used a 1.5-quart pot.
Step 12:

Pour 1 tablespoon of sauce into each pepper. Pour the rest of the sauce into the bottom of the pot. It should come about three-quarters of the way up the peppers. If there isn't enough, add a little more water to the pot. Tuck the celery pieces, bay leaves, and allspice berries into the sauce. Cap the peppers with their tops.
Step 13:

Set the pot of peppers over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a boil, then cover and simmer over low heat for about 45 minutes, until the filling is cooked through. Enjoy!