Stuffed Green Peppers

Growing up, my mom had a "go to" recipe for stuffed green peppers. To be honest - I hated them. Peppers are not kid friendly. However, the rice mixture (I remember) being quite good. It was filled with onion and sausage, stuffed deep into the pepper. When Mom made this, I would eat the inside - and leave the pepper. Thanks, but no thanks.

As I've aged (29 in just a couple of months, YIKES), I've discovered a taste for peppers. Something made me think about Mom's recipe, which made me think I wanted to try a vegetarian version.

Stuffed Peppers:

4 Good-sized peppers (I just had a brainstorm to get one of every color for prettiness sake)
2-3 cups of cooked rice
About a cup of a chopped leek.
Around 12 (more is okay if you want to use up the package) Baby Portobello or wild mushrooms.
3/4 cup cooked Chickpeas
4 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon rubbed sage
1 teaspoon ground thyme
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoons salt (or to taste)
Ground cracked pepper, to taste
Cheese for topping

(1) Wash and prepare leeks: Divide leek down the middle length wise and rough cut 4 inch pieces or so. Separate out all the layers and place in a LARGE bowl filled with water. Leeks are grown in a sandy dirt, and the sand gets trapped between the layers. If you let the leeks sit in water, the sand rinses off and settles to the bottom. Just gently lift the floating leeks off the top after 10 minutes or so. Then chop up into smaller pieces. If you skip this step - you risk grittiness.

(2) Cut the top off of each pepper. Pull out the seed pod inside and wash out thoroughly.

(3) In large pan (I actually used a dutch oven), heat some olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and leeks, and sweat. Then add mushrooms and cook until soft.

(4) Add spices, cook for a few minutes more.

(5) Add rice and chickpeas, heat. If mixture starts to dry out or stick to the bottom, add a little water for steam. Taste to see if mixture is right - you want it almost too salty. As the salt seems less obvious when eaten with the pepper. In fact, your very flavorful rice might be not flavorful enough once in the pepper.

(6) Stuff each pepper, top with cheese, and cook in an appropriate pan at 375 for about 30 minutes. I used a couple of loaf pans, as I wanted something that would support the sides a little. It worked well. The most important part is to choose something with sides, as the moisture will spill off a cookie sheet. Also, the cheese you pick is flexible. The original recipe my mom used had Monterrey jack, which is a nice melty-type cheese. I envision a fresh mozzarella to compliment the thyme. Goat cheese would add some tang, and pepper jack some punch. I used some shredded cheddar and a Mexican blend that I had on hand - which did the trick. If you really LOVE cheese, add some in the middle for more cheesy goodness.


To eat, Go ahead and cut the pepper in half, then each half in half. The quartered pieces of the pepper will fall, leaving you a plate full of yumminess. This will allow you to get a bite of pepper and stuffing in every taste.
I really loved the brown color in the rice. It had pretty chocolate undertones.