Stuffed Peppers
Servings: 6 servings
Calories: 702cal
Equipment
Ingredients
- 6 bell peppers in colors of your choice
- 1 pound bulk sweet Italian sausage
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- ¼ cup onion chopped
- 1 Tablespoon smoked paprika
- ½ Tablespoon black pepper
- 2 Tablespoons garlic salt divided
- 1 ½ cups cooked rice
- 16 ounces tomato sauce 2 - 8 ounce cans
- 12 ounces mozzarella cheese shredded
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Cut the tops off all the peppers and hollow out the insides.
- Boil or steam peppers before stuffing them. Steam for 15 minutes, or drop into boiling water and cook for 10 minutes.
- In a large skillet, combine ground sirloin, Italian sausage, onion, smoked paprika, black pepper, and 1 tablespoon of the garlic salt. Cook over medium heat until meat is no longer pink, using a spatula or wooden spoon to break up the meat as it cooks. Drain any excess fat (there shouldn’t be much since you are using ground sirloin).
- To the cooked meat, add cooked rice, tomato sauce, and remaining garlic salt. Stir to combine.
- Place each pepper into a baking pan.
- Fill each pepper halfway with meat mixture and top with cheese, leaving room for a second layer. Repeat with more meat mixture and top with more cheese.
- Bake stuffed peppers in preheated oven for 20 minutes. If you would like the cheese browned, you can put them under the broiler for 1-2 minutes.
Notes
- About 1/2 cup of dry white rice should yield you 1 1/2 cups cooked white rice.
- After cutting the tops off the peppers, you can use the tip of a knife to cut out the stem, providing you with a decorative top for your peppers which makes for great presentation!
- You can easily remove the white pith from the insides of the pepper by holding the pepper in your hand upright and using a small spoon to scrape the pith off the sides and out of the pepper.
- We are using ground sirloin as it has a lower fat content, which means less shrinkage.
- Steaming or blanching the peppers cuts down on bake time significantly. The oven is basically used to melt the cheese topping. If you choose not to cook the peppers first, you will need to increase the bake time by about 20-25 minutes. We recommend boiling or steaming the peppers first as a longer bake time could result in dried out filling.
Nutrition
Serving: 1pepper | Calories: 702cal | Carbohydrates: 26g | Protein: 41g | Fat: 49g | Saturated Fat: 21g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 20g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 154mg | Sodium: 3648mg | Potassium: 990mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 5014IU | Vitamin C: 160mg | Calcium: 342mg | Iron: 4mg
