Sausage Stuffed Bell Peppers

Last night was another first for me: stuffing bell peppers. It was actually pretty easy, just a little time consuming. I was inspired by a vegetarian recipe I found in the Eat-Clean Cookbook. I basically just needed to know how to cook the peppers properly. Other than that, I stuffed those babies with as many veggies as I could and some maple sausage. Here were the ingredients I used:

Sausage Stuffed Bell Peppers

• 4 bell peppers- I used 2 green, 2 red. Top cut off and insides removed (seeds, etc.)
• 1 cup of sweet corn- I used frozen corn and microwaved it before cooking with the rest of the ingredients.
• 2 carrots- peeled and diced
• 1 small green pepper- diced
• half an onion-diced. I used a white onion, I’m sure you could use whatever you’d like
• 1 cup cooked brown rice
• 1 can diced tomatoes (15oz)
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 pound maple wild boar sausage- you can use any sausage you like or none to make it vegetarian. You could throw in some beans (maybe black beans?) if you wanted to keep it vegetarian but add some protein.
• Handfull of mozzarella cheese

The first thing I had to do was boil the peppers for a couple minutes. I filled a stock pot full of water and a little salt and let it boil. Once it started boiling, I lowered the heat to a simmer then added the peppers. I cooked the peppers for about 5 minute. You just want them to be a little soft, not too squishy.

Before boiling, I cut the tops off and removed the insides. A key step!

While the peppers were cooking, I cut up and prepared the rest of the veggies.

Once the peppers were done cooking, I took them out and placed them facing downwards onto a towel to soak up any remaining water.

You don’t notice at first that the peppers are cooked. Once they sit for a few minutes, they start to feel softer so it’s crucial not to cook them too long in the simmering water or they’ll get too soft in the oven.

Next, I started cooking the brown rice. While the rice was cooking, I stir fried the rest of the ingredients. First up: sausage.

Then I added the carrots and green peppers. Some of the corn snuck through too…

Then the tomatoes and garlic.

Finally, the corn. I let the whole mixture simmer for about 5 minutes.

By this time, the rice was done. I left the lid off the rice to let it cool down a little. Once it was cooled, I added the rice to the sausage mixture.

Finally, I was at the good part! Time to start stuffin’ those peppers! I greased up a baking pan and set the oven on bake at 350 degrees.

I just spooned the mixture into each pepper being careful not to over stuff them.

I cooked the peppers for ten minutes, then took them out and sprinkled them with mozzarella cheese. Then cooked for ten more minutes.

That was it! Dinner was served! I had way too much of the mixture so we have some yummy leftovers today. We each had two peppers and it was plenty.

I thought this was a great, satisfying dinner. It was pretty healthy too since it was stuffed with veggies and lean protein. I will definitely make this again and maybe even throw in different vegetables, beans, or quinoa. It’s a pretty versatile dish. The preparation takes some time but it’s all easy stuff.

Happy Tuesday all!