Stuffed Peppers

This is one of several stuffed pepper recipes we've tried. Honestly, it's not the best of them, although that might be my fault. I will type the recipe below as it was in the book, but I substituted ground turkey for ground beef and turkey bacon for bacon.  The peppers were a little dry (the traditional tomato sauce contains a lot of sugar, believe it or not and so isn't included in this recipe), but Robert thinks the dryness could be attributed to the ground turkey (to make matters worse, I used ground turkey breast instead of regular ground turkey, which is only about 1% fat, and therefore innately dry.  I also microwaved the peppers to partially cook them first instead of boiling them (as the recipe states).

The meat also seemed to get more flavor from the green peppers than the red, but I'm not sure if that is typical or not.

Anyhow, here's the recipe from Idiot's Guide, but with my adaptations noted...

Stuffed Green Peppers


4 green or red bell peppers or a combination
2 slices (turkey) bacon, diced
2 Tbsp butter
1 small onion, diced
3/4 cup chopped celery
1 lb ground beef (or ground turkey or ground turkey breast)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1/4 tsp dried basil

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cut a slice from the top of each pepper and remove seeds and membrane.  Put peppers in a microwave safe casserole with some water in the bottom. Microwave for 5 minutes on high.

3.  In a heavy skillet, cook bacon until crisp.  Remove bacon and add butter, onion, and celery and saute until tender.  Remove mixture and set aside. Brown and drain ground beef (or ground turkey). Add vegetable mixture and bacon back into the skillet and set off heat. Stir in eggs, salt, pepper, parsley, and basil.

4. Fill pepper shells with meat mixture, and place in a greased baking dish. Pour hot water to a depth of 1/4 inch around the peppers. Bake 30 minutes.