Stuffed Peppers ~ Meat, Rice & Indian Spices

Moving to a new home has been exhilarating, exhausting, and so distracting to my foodie blogging. This weekend I was finally unpacked enough to feel creative in my new kitchen! I thought Cinco De Mayo Sunday should be special and colorful, and what a better way than stuffed peppers of every color~ green, yellow, and red!  

I hunted around Oaktown for organic peppers, since I did not have time to go to the local farmers market. Luckily, my nearby grocery store Farmer Joe's, has wonderful organic produce for this dish, and grass feed beef. 

This dish took a lot longer than I imagined, as I didn't presoak my black beans, and of course, you need to make the rice and cook the ground beef before you can stuff the peppers, not to mention the baking time. In the end it was all worth it. 

The wonderful secret to this recipe is the Indian spice combination that has gone unused in my spice drawer ~ Garam Masala. This spice is a combination of black pepper, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cardamom. The Garam Masala really complements the cayenne and the cumin that I cooked the ground beef with. The filling had exciting flavors and the peppers where a perfect vehicle for this dish! 

I served them with a side of black beans and some fried ripe plantain. Please enjoy these stuffed peppers, and amend the recipe as you need to make it yours! 

Ingredients

1 cup of white rice 
2 cups of water
1 table spoon of oil 
1/4 teaspoon of sea salt 

1/2 pound ground beef 

1/3 cup chopped onion 

1/4 teaspoon of cayenne

1/4 teaspoon  cumin 
1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder 

1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup of water 

1/2 cup of Parmesan 

1/3 cup Italian parsley

1/3 cup of raisins 

Sprinkle of Garam Masala  

4 peppers 
1/2 cup of Parmesan 

How to Prepare: 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

First cook the white rice with oil and salt on medium heat in two cups of water. When water boils away and you can see top of rice, give rice a little stir, then place lid on pan and lower heat to low. The rice should be done in ten minutes from when putting the lid on it. Turn heat off when done, and let rice sit in pan until beef is ready. 

Prepare the peppers, chopped parsley, raisins, and 1 cup of grated cheese for later. Cut peppers in halves and take out the seeds and middle lining to make room for the stuffing. Place halves in casserole as seen below. 

At this point, you can start cooking the ground beef, onions, and the spices: cayenne, cumin, garlic powder, sea salt at medium heat. I like to add some water to my iron skillet while they beef is browning. Just a few dashes of water to keep things cooking well. (Iron skillets cook very evenly, and I highly recommend you invest in this pan for your kitchen.) Once ground beef is nicely brown and onions are translucent, you are ready to add rice and other ingredients, turn heat off skillet. The water should be cooked away at this point. 

To your cooked ground beef (ground turkey can also be used) add rice, raisins, grated Parmesan, parsley, and few dashes of Garam Masala.Toss this combination quickly and prepare to start stuffing. 

Fill peppers till they have little mounds. You will have plenty of stuffing with some left over if you stuff 4 peppers. Lastly, I added more Parmesan on top to of them all as seen below. Bake peppers in oven uncovered for 25-30 minutes and you see them nicely golden on top. 

Serve hot with side dishes to complement. 

Will serve 4 people.