Stuffed peppers baked with tomato sauce and no precooking [closed]

Question

I've grown up having stuffed peppers for dinner. I know several things about how they're made but I'm missing a few things to get them to come out right.

Now, Everyone has their own style of making these, and there are a lot of recipes on the web. I feel like from everything I've seen on the web though I want to do it differently.

The peppers are blanched but otherwise uncooked. The stuffing consists of ground beef and/or sausage, onion, the pepper tops, etc. None of the meat or stuffing otherwise is precooked. The peppers are placed in a glass casserole dish and covered with tomato... something.

That being said, here are the things that I am trying to work out:

• Using instant or not-instant rice.
• Covering with canned tomatoes or tomato soup, or something else
• Bake time and temp

I have only tried normal-type rice, and baked at 350F for about an hour and a half. I used canned diced tomatoes.

I made a bunch and froze some for later. The original batch came out okay. The rice was nice and tender, but the peppers were a bit bitter and too soft. I made some more a while later and I undercooked them (the rice was still a bit crunchy) but honestly they tasted better.

Does anyone do their stuffed peppers in a similar way? regardless, any tips?

(thanks for all of the answers. I have a lot to try out now. If anyone has anymore details they would like to share please let me know.)

Answer 1

First I don't usally cook the meat first either, this leads to soggy peppers which I like, but other's don't. I think if you don't want soggy peppers you'll have to at least partly cook the filling first. As for rice: I generally use the boil in the bag type and only cook it half the recomended time. I bake at 350 until the meat is done by temp. I also top with canned tomatoes but I also pour some spicy V-8 into each of the peppers for extra juice to get absorbed by the rice. I generally save all of the drippings and pour them over more rice to serve the pepper on.

This also works great for stuffed tomatos.... cut the top off the tomato scoop out the inside, sprinkle with salt and turn upside down (this helps to get rid of excess juice) and then treat them like peppers.

Answer 2

My secret ingredient is Lee & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce.

I don't blanch peppers, and stuff them with a pre-cooked mixture of hamburger, rice, and canned tomatoes. Blanching takes effort, may leech valued vitamins, and I don't mind baking for longer. The hamburger gets browned, drained, then simmered for a while with onions, worcestershire sauce, and the tomatoes. I pour a little can of tomato sauce over 4 peppers stuffed with the rice/meat mixture in a covered glass dish, and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, depending on how crisp your guests like the peppers. (I like them on the more cooked side, myself.) This was my Grandmother's recipe, I think derived from an old Betty Crocker cookbook.

If you want a unique flavor and texture try brown rice.

Answer 3

Generally, I pre-cook the filling. No meat in my case, but rice with plenty of fun things in it. Once the rice is ready, I stuff the (fresh) peppers and put them in the pot.

As for the tomato sauce, I use some tomato paste, seasoning and water. The point of the sauce is to provide a medium for the transfer of heat. Anything else is so that it doesn't leech the flavour from the peppers. That's why I add some salt and spicing, similar to what's in the stuffing.

Tomato sauce is simply a nice touch of flavour that won't change the pepper's and stuffing's own flavours too much.

Answer 4

I do not precook anything. I mix hamburger, diced onion, garlic, 1/2 cup instant rice, 1 egg, salt and pepper and 1 cup of tomato sauce. Stuff raw peppers, put them in cassarole dish with a little water in the bottom, cook at 400 for 45-60 minutes depending on size of peppers, add tomato sauce on top and bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Answer 5

Don't need to cook the beef. Mix beef, minute rice, sauteed veggies, herbs, Worchestershire sauce and an egg and stuff the whole pepper -- hollowed out. Then stand them up in a big pot and pour a whole big can of tomato juice over them, along with about 1/4 cup of molasses drizzled into the liquid. Cook covered for about an hour -- delish!!!! You can add some cheese on top if you wish.