Chorizo and Rice Stuffed Peppers

 Wondering what to do with all those peppers still on the vine in your garden?  Well, you better pick them if you live in the Midwest, because frost is near.

Here is a recipe that I found on line at https://www.mediterraneanliving.com. 

Ingredients

4 large sweet bell peppers or a half dozen smaller pimentos or other elongated peppers.                                                                                                                                1 cup onion, finely chopped                                                                                              1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil                                                                                                1 lb. chorizo Sausage (In Holland MI, there is a Mexican grocer on every corner.  If you don’t  have a Mexican grocer in your neighborhood, the “Dos Mamacitas” chorizo carried by Meijer is  actually quite flavorful)                                                      2 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped                                                                                2 cups cooked rice* (put about half into the meat mixture and save about half to mix into the sauce).                                                                                                            Sauce:                                                                                                                                    1 cup shredded Parmesan and or pecorino Romano cheese                                            1 large 14 oz can of diced Italian tomatoes or more                                                         4 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped 1/2 tsp of Cumin 1 tsp of chili powder Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.                                                                  2.  Slice the tops almost off of the peppers, but leave attached to the pepper creating a hinge.  If it breaks off, use a small skewer to hold it on after you stuff it.  Remove and discard seeds 3. Break up and cook sausage over medium heat until browned up.  Sautee onion in olive oil until soft.  Add garlic and cook for one minute.  Add some of the rice to the meat mixture. Stuff the peppers and lay them in a baking dish.                                    4. Add garlic, spices, some of the cheese and rice to any leftover bits in the pan. Once softened, add the tomatoes, heat through and  pour the rice/sauce in baking dish  over the peppers.    5.  Cover and bake for 45 minutes.  If too soupy uncover and bake for an additional 20 minutes.  If it looks good, turn off the oven and let it rest in the hot oven for 10 minutes or so.    6. Put a pepper and some rice on each plate and garnish with remaining cheese. 

We like chorizo and Mexican spices perhaps because most of the peppers we use are what one might call Mexican peppers. However, any kind of pepper large enough for stuffing works fine and you can easily modify the stuffing and rice to highlight any style you like. For example, you could substitute Italian sausage instead of chorizo and put things like oregano, rosemary or basil in the rice to give it an Italian flair. Likewise, substituting kielbasa for chorizo  and seasoning the rice with herbs like dill, paprika, bay leaf or caraway seeds yields a very Polish flavored dish.    My sister, Linda, stuffs the peppers with corned beef hash and braises the whole lot in a tomato sauce. There’s no end to the delicious modifications to stuffed peppers.                                                                                     

*MEX-ITAL Rice is our favorite variation. We usually serve Milanese Rice whenever we cook lamb of any kind. If we make the whole recipe (which is best) we normally have a couple of cups of cooked Milanese rice left over. Use this leftover rice in the pepper recipe above for a wonderful Italian tweak!

Milanese Rice recipe and some more suggestions are in the following blog post dated 8/6/2020 below.

Enjoy in Good Health                                                                                                          Brian Cain, the Michigan Vintner