Isn’t it funny how something you despised eating as a kid is now one of your favorite entrees? One entree my mom used to make often is stuffed green peppers and I’m not sure I ever ate that dinner. I recall trying it, not liking it and never eating it again, until…I got married and was looking for new recipes that used ground turkey (at the time I only ate poultry and fish). Years ago, like 10 years, The Turkey Store brand ground turkey offered a cookbook if you sent in something like 5 UPC codes and some amount for shipping. Lost at what to do with ground turkey and other cuts of turkey I sent away for the cookbook and let me tell you it is the best cookbook I have ever received this way! Every single recipe I try is great! It’s easy, tasty and even my kids will eat them. This brings me to one of my favorites: Colorful Stuffed Peppers. Enjoy!
Stuffed Pepper with Simple Spring Salad
Colorful Stuffed Peppers (The Turkey Store cookbook)
1 pkg. ground turkey
4-6 red, yellow and orange peppers (number of peppers needed depends on size of pepper, most often I can fill 6)
2 T. vegetable or olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. dried basil
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
14 0z. can diced tomatoes (plain or seasoned), drained
1 1/2 cup cooked white or brown rice
6 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs (see tip below)
1 1/2 T. melted butter
Cut the tops off the peppers and clean out the seeds, alternately you could cut the peppers lengthwise through the stem. Bring 4-6 quarts of salted water to a boil and add clean peppers, boiling for 4 minutes. Remove and drain peppers. Place peppers in a greased 9×13 baking dish. Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a large, deep saute pan heat oil and saute onions and garlic, 5 minutes. Crumble ground turkey into pan, sprinkle with basil, salt and pepper and cook until no longer pink. Add tomatoes and rice cook until heated through. Remove from heat and add cheese. Fill prepared peppers with turkey and rice mixture. In a small bowl, mix bread crumbs and melted butter. Place bread crumb mixture on the top of each filled pepper.
Bake peppers at 350 F for 30 minutes or until bread crumbs are golden brown.
Serve with a fresh green salad.
*Fresh bread crumbs tip: take the ends of your sandwich bread (the ones no one eats) and process in the food processor or blender. Place in a freezer safe bag. Voila! Fresh bread crumbs whenever you need them!
