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In-Season Recipe Connection: Mexican Stuffed Peppers

August 17th, 2010 · 24 Comments · Recipes

Are you tempted by the lovely basket of peppers at the Farmer’s Market but not quite sure how to deal with so many all at once? Since most recipes seem to call for one pepper at a time, you either have to preserve the peppers by freezing or dehydrating, or find a great stuffed pepper recipe.

If your family likes Mexican food, this lower carb, grain-free twist on taco night will send you to the Farmer’s Market in a hurry!

Find this recipe, updated and with even more frugal tips and transformation options, along with 29 other bean recipes and a ton of information on cooking dry beans, the health benefits of beans, and ideas for bean haters in The Everything Beans Book, available now at Kitchen Stewardship!

stuffed peppers (17)

Recipe: Mexican Stuffed Peppers

inspired by Coping with Frugality

Ingredients:

3-5 bell peppers, green or colored, halved, seeds removed
1/2 pound ground beef (or a full pound)
1 Tbs. taco seasoning (or follow package directions for 1/2 pound beef)
1 1/2 c. frozen corn (optional)
2 c. black beans (dried and prepared or about 1 can)
1 16 oz. jar salsa
1/4 c. diced red onion
(optional) other vegetables: diced red pepper, zucchini, leafy greens, etc…anything you have on hand to enhance the mixture
(optional) extra kidney beans or lentils to fill in for the missing 1/2 lb. ground beef
Cost: Varies widely depending on vegetables used and current Farmer’s Market prices, but I estimate I could make the meal for 6 adults for $5-6.

stuffed peppers (4)

Method:

Brown meat and add taco seasoning, following directions on packet or with seasoning recipe to make basic taco meat. If using a half pound ground beef, you might brown a whole pound and freeze the other half for an easy pasta meal the next week. Consider adding cooked lentils or kidney beans at this point and double the taco seasoning accordingly.

Add all the other ingredients except the cheese and heat through on the stovetop. Be creative with the vegetables you have on hand; it’s hard to go wrong with a whole jar of salsa and some taco seasoning already in the mix!

Meanwhile, use a steamer basket to steam the halved peppers for 5-10 minutes until somewhat softened but not cooked to death. Arrange in an oval or 9×13 casserole dish and “stuff” the filling into each pepper generously. This filling is a bit like the loaves and fishes: everything is suddenly full and there’s still more left! I often end up with more filling than I need, which becomes great taco style leftovers or freezes well for a future meal.

After filling, top the peppers with shredded cheese and broil or bake at 350F for 5-10 minutes to brown the cheese.

You can skip the steaming peppers step and simply fill the raw peppers, adding a little water around them in the casserole dish to soften them up while it bakes, but you’ll have to bake 30 minutes, covered, before removing the cover for 5-10 minutes to brown the cheese. You can also freeze raw peppers, simply halved, and then they’re ready for the next stuffed pepper meal, especially if you freeze a jar of leftover filling!

stuffed peppers (11) The day I took this photo, I used only a half pound ground beef but added some beef heart, half an ear of corn that was leftover in the fridge, regular white onions instead of red, and orange peppers. I also threw in a can of kidney beans. Often some spinach sneaks in, and it’s really quite alright without any corn for a lower carb option. This is nothing if not a versatile meal!

The original recipe called for a cup of cooked brown rice, but I’ve taken that out to make it a very diabetes-friendly meal for when my mother-in-law visits. The beans could decrease and the meat increase if you’re very serious about low carb; I’m more serious about my food budget, so I go the opposite way with meat and beans.

stuffed peppers (13)

You can see the way the finished peppers look in the photo at the left. I used half sharp cheddar, half pepper jack cheese for this variation, along with as many peppers as I could fit in my Foldtuk roaster. I still had a ton of filling leftover to use at lunches and freeze!

Pepper notes:

Red and green peppers are classic stuffed pepper options, but if you like a little heat, try this recipe with fresh poblanos (amazing!), and if you like a little fanciness, make roasted red peppers and then stuff those. Remember, you can always freeze the peppers cut in half (even roasted) and ready for the filling so that you can capture the essence of fresh summer produce any time of year!

Serve with:

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I’d love to see more of you as we cook in-season recipes this August!  Sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter, get KS for Kindle, or see my Facebook Fan Page.

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Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

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