Peppers: Stuffed

before

After the first Great Pepper Harvest of 2010 (okay, so what's "great" to some might look sort of flim flamy to others...) one of the things we couldn't wait to eat were warm, sweet and savory stuffed peppers.  Like many things that we make, stuffed peppers never seem to come out the same way twice.  Though they do seem to be a vehicle that stands up to reinterpretation.  This go round we stuffed ours with a mixture of wild rice with sauteed turnip greens and sausage.

Getting Started

I started by selecting the largest of the sweet varieties that we had harvested.  Mainly we had red Russian Healthy peppers, but there were a few Chocolate Beauties, one smallish Violet bell, and a couple very small orangey guys.  After deciding which sides of each pepper would behave the best and not tip over, I cut them in half and removed the seeds.  I cut enough peppers that they pretty well filled up a 9x13 baking dish.

Fill 'er Up

• 1 cup long grain wild rice
• 1 lb. sweet Italian sausage, uncooked  (you could use any sort.  I got an organic chicken variety.)
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 1-2 garlic cloves, finely diced
• 1 1/2 lbs. turnip greens,chopped
• olive oil
• salt and pepper and crushed pepper flakes
• fresh herbs

 Method

• Cook the rice -  either according to package directions on the stove top or in a rice cooker.  I'm all about the rice cooker.  As it is cooking, get the rest of the filling prepped.

• Remove the sausage from its casing,  add a good bit of red pepper flakes, and brown  with a little olive oil in the trusty cast iron skillet.  When it begins to crisp up, remove it to a bowl and set it aside. 

• Using the oil left in the skillet, get the onion and garlic cooking just until they begin to take on some color, about 5 minutes. 

• Add the chopped greens, a couple hefty pinches of salt, black pepper, and whatever assortment of chopped herbs you like - my random assortment from the garden was parsley, oregano, and a little marjoram. 

• When the greens have wilted and begun to turn tender, I took them off the heat, and gently tossed them and the sausage with the cooked rice. 

• Taste for seasoning, add another pinch of salt if needed, and set to stuffing the peppers.

Into the Oven

• After the peppers are stuffed and positioned snugly into the Pyrex cover tightly with foil and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes.  Pull them out, remove the foil and top them with thinly sliced cheese.  We had some with provolone and some with cheddar.  Put back into the oven for another 5 minutes or so until the cheese is oozy and melted.  

They were really delish - sweet peppers, slightly bitter greens, savory, spicy sausage, sharp, tangy cheese - yum!  The recipe is just a loose guideline, really.  Just a jumping off point.  We have made them with seasoned ground tofu meat instead of sausage.  With chard or beet greens or mushrooms or grated zucchini instead of or in addition to anything else.  With brown rice or red rice or lentil/barley/couscous mix.  You go.

after