Week 12 - Peppers

I love stuffed peppers, so when the Week 12 challenge came up as peppers, choosing what to do for the challenge was so easy. We've had some amazing stuffed peppers (and other vegetables) at restaurants, especially the ones we had in a small village in Greece, but the only ones we had at home before this challenge were the ones we bought at Costco, in which the peppers always came out underdone and not soft at all (but the filling was good). I quickly found a delicious-sounding recipe for turkey stuffed peppers on Skinnytaste, and the thing I liked the most was that people commented about how soft and juicy the peppers were. Exactly what we were looking for.

The ingredients for the stuffed peppers were:

- 1 lb ground turkey ($4.50)
- olive oil ($0.20)
- about 6 cloves of garlic, minced ($0.30)
- 1 small onion, chopped ($0.79)
- garlic powder ($0.05)
- cumin ($0.10)
- salt & freshly ground black pepper ($0.03)
- oregano ($0.05)
- 4 bell peppers ($5.34)
- 1.5 cups of chicken broth (bouillon + water in our case) ($0.50)
- about 3/4 cup of tomato sauce ($1)
- about 1.5 cups of cooked brown rice ($1)
- canola oil spray ($0.03)
- a few handfuls of shredded cheese ($1)

The total cost for the stuffed peppers was approximately $14.89 (right on par with so many of our challenge meals). We've made it a few times since then, and the price might have been slightly less those times since we only used three peppers instead of four. (The prices fluctuate so much though, and depends on where we can get our groceries from!) For a meal that's just the right size for our family of three, that works for us.


The steps to make the stuffed peppers were:

1. Prep - Mince onion and garlic. Wash peppers and chop in half from top to bottom, pulling out the seeds and ribs.

2. Add olive oil to skillet, and cook onions and garlic until soft.

3. Add turkey, garlic powder, cumin, salt, black pepper, and oregano, and cook, breaking up the turkey as it cooks, until meat is fully cooked. Adjust seasonings if needed, to taste.


4. Add tomato sauce and 1/2 cup of chicken broth, and simmer for a few minutes. Adjust flavors to taste.

5. Add rice to turkey, and mix well. [Note: We used some rice that had been thawing out in the fridge for a few days, but was apparently still frozen. Make sure the rice is fully thawed out (or never frozen) or this will add a significant amount of time, as we learned the hard way...]

6. Spoon meat and rice mixture into the bell pepper halves and place in baking dish that has been sprayed with canola oil. [We used two 13x9 baking dishes for 4 peppers (and still do even with less peppers).] Top with cheese.

7. Pour 1/2 cup of chicken broth into the bottom of each baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil (making sure it's tight, but also not resting on the cheese), and bake for 40-45 minutes.


The stuffed peppers were everything I hoped they would be. The peppers themselves were so soft and juicy, and the vibrant taste of the peppers, plus the seasoned turkey and rice mixture, plus the cheese made for an excellent combination. If we would change anything about the way we made it that time, it would be to add a little more seasoning to the meat, but it was still good as it was. We were so happy with how this turned out and put this technique for stuffed peppers into our repertoire, with the intention of mixing up the fillings depending on what we were planning for the week.

Since the time we did this challenge the first time, we've now made stuffed peppers a couple more times, experimenting with different variations, but each time using only three peppers. The second time, we used beef-less ground beef from Trader Joe's instead of ground turkey, and omitted the tomato sauce (didn't have any) and the shredded cheese (didn't have any open packages). The two ingredients that we were missing seemed to make a difference, so the third time, we used Gardein beef-less ground (no idea if that's the same manufacturer as TJ's, but it's frozen instead and tastes different), tomato paste, and shredded parmesan, and it was much better. Considering the various meat supply issues during the pandemic, we're really glad that all the meat alternative products work so well in these stuffed peppers, and everyone in the family, including B, loves them. Definitely something we're going to keep in our rotation as long as we can get good bell peppers!