stuffed peppers

Stuffed peppers are my husband's absolute favorite dish. These ones are an adaptation of this recipe from the Mark's Daily Apple blog, which replaces the usual rice stuffing with a mixture of meat, onions, seasonings and grated cauliflower. The original recipe calls for cooking the stuffed peppers in a slow cooker all day, but I figured if I pre-cooked the filling once I mixed it up, I could then cook the peppers in the oven with no problem. Turns out I was right. I cooked the filling in a frying pan until it was probably about half cooked, then stuffed the peppers, added a few pieces of super-sharp cheddar cheese to the tops and put them in a 425 degree oven for about 30 minutes. The filling cooked through, the peppers softened, and best of all, the cheese bubbled and toasted on top.

MMMMM. Cheesy! :D

We really enjoyed these. I used half ground beef and half ground pork instead of the 2lbs of pork the recipe called for. The texture was obviously a bit different than traditional stuffed peppers, but in a nice way. Next time I think I might grate my onion rather than chop it, so that it's finer and gets better incorporated into the mix. I might also add a can of diced tomatoes along with the tomato paste. Other than that, I was really happy with these and will definitely make them again.