}

Friday, September 23, 2011

Russian comfort food: Stuffed peppers

This blog post is a part of The FaveDiets Blog Hop, The Healthy Hop: Your Favorite Recipe From the Last Month. I’ve decided to share one of my all time August-September favorite recipes. Why August-September? The answer is simple: we are talking what’s in season, and there is nothing better than a couple of stuffed peppers with some sour cream.

This is an easy recipe you can also cook in advance and then just re-heat: it will taste as good as freshly made and saves you from unhealthy frozen dinners on a week night. When I was a kid, we used to cook it a lot in our country house, and since back then stuffed peppers are on my list of perfect end of summer meals. 

Stuffed peppers

Ingredients (make 4):
  • 4 bell peppers (preferably green)
  • 1 lb (500 g) ground beef
  • 2 cups uncooked rice
  • 2 cups tomato paste
  • 4-5 parsley twigs
  • 2 garlic gloves
  • salt, pepper

Directions:
  1. Cook rice. Make sure it absorbs all the water.
  2. Season ground beef with salt and pepper. 
  3. Mix ground beef and rice. 
  4. Wash bell peppers really well. Cut off the top (it will serve as a ‘lid’). Clean them from inside. 
  5. Fill in bell peppers with the stuffing (ground beef and rice). Cover with their natural ‘lids’. 
  6. Put bell peppers in a big saucepan.
  7. Pour in about 1 cup of water, add tomato paste, garlic gloves and parsley (do not chop it).
  8. Put to boil, then reduce the heat and cook covered for about 30 minutes.
  9. Serve hot with some sour cream.

NOTE: If you are vegetarian, observing Lent or just prefer a meatless dish, replace ground beef with grated carrots and finely chopped onion and use more rice.


6 comments:

Matt @ FaveDiets said...

I would never thought to add sour cream to stuffed peppers, but it's such a great idea. I love how simple this recipe is, thanks for sharing it in my hop!

Unknown said...

We Russians believe that everything is better with sour cream:) Always happy to share my recipes in your hop!

Elina (Russian Bites) said...

Omg, I forgot how delicious stuffed peppers are with a dollop of sour cream. Everything really IS better with it! I posted my recipes for stuffed peppers a little while back (http://www.russianbites.com/meat-stuffed-peppers-farshirovanie-perzi) - now I'm craving it with a little sc ;)

Unknown said...

Elina, just checked out your blog post. Great pics!

Anna said...

So true! Everything is better with sour cream. I can't think of any dish that would be ruined by it. Thanks for another great recipe dear! Stuffed peppers are awesome. I'm so weird, I like them, but don't eat the pepper itself, only the stuffing. But that special taste the pepper "juice" gives to your meal.. delicious!!!

Unknown said...

Tastes differ:) You can try making beef and rice balls and cook them in a deep saucepan with lots of tomato paste and chopped peppers.