Ingredients
Red bell bell pepper – 1200 gr.
Ground beef – 500 gr.
Chicken stuffing – 200 gr.
All-grain rice – 100 gr.
Carrots – 2 pcs.
Onions (sweet onions are better) – 2 units.
For tomato-sour cream sauce:
Tomato paste – 2 tbsp.
Sour cream – 3 tbsp.
Flour – 1 tbsp.
Olive oil – 2 tbsp.
Approximately 3 cups water
Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
For sour cream-garlic sauce:
Sour cream – 3 tbsp.
Fresh dill – a bunch
Garlic – 3 cloves
Approximately 3 cups water
Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
For homemade Italian basil sauce:
Garlic – 2 cloves
Tomatoes in their own juice – 800g
Olive oil – 2 tablespoons.
Salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste
Fresh basil leaves – 3 tablespoons (dried basil – 1 tablespoon)
Red pepper flakes
peppers
When buying peppers for stuffing, try to choose peppers of equal size, preferably medium. For a more colorful and beautiful dish, take colorful bell peppers. There are no special requirements for carrots, but the onions should be chosen neither bitter nor spicy. The ideal flavor onions will be sweet, the sweeter the better. Some even use red sweet onions.
Preparing the vegetables
Peel the onion from the husk (you can set it aside for the coloring of Easter eggs), chop the onion finely, put it aside for now. Carrots should be carefully washed, peeled and grated on a coarse grater. Then you need to mix the onions with carrots, add salt, ground black pepper to taste and fry the vegetables in olive oil, adding a spoonful of tomato paste. Roast can be both in a frying pan (over low heat and stirring constantly so it does not stick), and in a multicooker on “Fry” or “Bake”. Some multicookers are very heated bowl in the mode “Roasting”, so it is better to stir the vegetables constantly during cooking. Once the roast is ready, you can start making stuffing for the peppers.
How to make stuffing for stuffed peppers
To do this, you need to divide the stuffing into two parts. One part of the onion and carrots in vegetable oil should remain in the multicooker, the second part of the roast should be put in a cup, where the stuffing will be cooked.
Rice for stuffing stuffed peppers is best to use round-grain rice, as long-grain varieties can quickly boil. Before adding the stuffing, the groats should be thoroughly rinsed several times until the water is completely clear. After this, clean rice should be mixed with onions and carrots.
Then you need to put in a cup of pre-prepared minced meat. You can use either purchased minced meat, or make it yourself.
Homemade minced meat can be made from one type of meat, for example: beef, pork, turkey or chicken; or combined minced meat from several types of meat. You can also add your favorite spices, then stuffed peppers will turn out with a brighter flavor. The most common option is ground beef and pork in about equal proportions. If you want to get a more dietary version of the stuffed peppers recipe, prepare stuffing from turkey or from the white meat of chicken (from the breast). In this case, stuffed peppers with turkey can even be used as a children’s dish. For example, at a children’s birthday party, they are very convenient to portion them out on plates.
To prepare the stuffing, take the meat of your choice, cut it into pieces suitable for your model of meat grinder and twist it. You can add a bit of white bread during spinning, this will make the taste of minced meat more delicate. If you are using pre-made stuffing, simply add the right amount of stuffing to the cup with the stuffing. Add salt, ground black pepper or other spices of your choice to the stuffing. Then all the ingredients should be mixed very well.
Now let’s deal with the bell peppers. Vegetables should be thoroughly washed and remove all the seeds. It does not hurt to taste the peppers before stuffing them, so as not to miss the over-peppers. If you find such peppers, and they taste very bitter, the dish will be hopelessly spoiled. It is better to cut the stalks very carefully, in a circle, so that it will be easier to put the stuffing inside the vegetables. In some recipes, the stalks are not thrown away, but baked in the oven and covered with them ready stewed peppers as lids. Such a variant of serving can be seen in the photo.
How to stuff bell peppers
After that, the peppers can be stuffed. Stuffing is most convenient to put the stuffing with a teaspoon. Do not try to stuff them too thickly, because they may break if the rice swells a lot while stewing. It is better to put the stuffing so that there is a little space left on top. This way the peppers will not lose their shape when cooked, and the dish will be very pretty when served.
It remains to place the stuffed peppers in the multicooker on a layer of the remaining onion and carrot roast. In addition, you do not need to grease the bowl of the multicooker, as the peppers will be filled with sauce, in which they will be stewed.
Try to stack stuffed peppers upright, with the stalks facing up, so they will fit more. Do not stack the stuffed peppers too tightly; they will enlarge a little as they braise.
Sauce options for stuffed bell peppers. Tomato and Sour Cream Sauce.
In a classic recipe, stuffed bell peppers are stewed in a tomato-sour cream sauce – from water, sour cream, flour and tomato paste. Prepare the tomato-sour cream sauce as follows: the listed ingredients should be well mixed, and then add salt and black pepper to taste. Once the sauce is made – you can set aside a small amount of it in a separate container. When serving the dish, it is good to use it either as a gravy, or put separately in a saucepan (as seen in the photo).
If you want to cook a diet version of stuffed bell peppers, it is better to stew the vegetables in water instead of the sauce.
It remains to pour the cooked sauce almost to the top of the peppers, so that the sauce reaches the edges of the peppers and put the desired mode in the multicooker – “Stew” – for one and a half hours.
As soon as the final signal of the multicooker – the peppers are ready. You can serve them with gravy from the multicooker, or you can put separately a saucepan with different sauces.
Stuffed peppers can be served with very tasty sauces – this will only benefit the dish, and the taste of the peppers will unfold even better. You can choose any sauce you like. Sour cream-garlic sauce is spicier and more tangy; tomato-sour cream sauce is a mild classic. And homemade Italian sauce will be loved by the whole family!
Sauce options for stuffed bell peppers. Sour cream-garlic sauce.
Prepare the sour cream-garlic sauce as follows. You should take a bunch of fresh dill, wash and sort it so that only the fine greens are left. We do not need the thick stems, they can be put aside for pickling vegetables. Then finely chop the selected small sprigs of dill and lightly crush them with a knife, so that the juice is released. After that, you need to pour the dill into a bowl with sour cream and mix it gently. Take out the garlic, peel a few cloves and squeeze through a garlic presser. If you do not have this tool at hand, the garlic should be chopped very finely, the finer the better. Then all the ingredients are again mixed thoroughly. If you are going to stew stuffed peppers in this sauce, you need to dilute it with water. If you are going to use this sauce to serve the dish, you do not need to dilute it with water. It is important for this sauce to let it stand for a while.
Variants of sauce for stuffed bell peppers. Homemade Italian sauce with basil.
Homemade Italian sauce with basil is also great with stuffed peppers. It is prepared simply:
Prepare the herbs. Wash fresh basil herbs well, rinse them under running water, then dry them with paper towels or in a special dryer for herbs. Do not neglect this tip, dried herbs will be easier for you to chop. If you have dry basil, you don’t need to wash it, just chop it extra if you come across large dry leaves.
Take garlic, peel a few cloves and chop it. If possible, pass the garlic through a garlic masher, but if not, just chop them finely. Then heat a small amount of extra virgin olive oil (about 2 tablespoons) in a small saucepan or ladle over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the minced garlic. Fry lightly, for five minutes maximum, and all the time you need to watch that the garlic has not browned.
After that, you need to add chopped tomatoes. You can use either fresh tomatoes or tomatoes from a can in their own juice. Make both recipes – and choose the one that suits your taste better. After adding the tomatoes, the fire under the pot should be increased and wait for the future sauce to boil. After the mass boils, the fire should be reduced. Then you need to put in the sauce salt, ground black pepper (better to grind it just before adding in a spice mill), red pepper flakes and finely chopped basil. Continue to cook the sauce over low heat, stirring constantly for another three to five minutes, then remove from the heat.