My son and I are both picky eaters with texture issues. We like the flavor of bell peppers but something about that crunchy slimy texture doesn’t sit right with us. The recipe started with using a single bell pepper cut in half that held 2 meatballs but gave the whole pot a bell pepper flavor. Only my mom or dad would actually eat the cooked peppers so later on, the pepper usually went to waste. Last year I discovered I could stomach pepper textures more when they were cut very small or blended into a meal. I started processing the peppers and “stuffing” them into the meatballs. Now we have another vegetable making it into our diet!
Inverted Stuffed Peppers (Hidden Veggie) Recipe
Course: Dinners, RecipesDifficulty: Easy5
servings30
minutes40
minutesIngredients
2 pounds ground beef (or combination of ground meats- I like turkey and beef as well)
1 C Instant Rice
2 Eggs
2 Bell Peppers
1/2 Tbsp Onion Powder
1 tsp Garlic Powder
64 oz. Tomato Juice
24 oz. Pasta Sauce
Directions
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the beef, rice, and egg.
- Core and dice the peppers. I pulse the peppers in a food processor a couple of times to get the pieces small enough to hide in the meatballs.
- Squeeze the excess water out of the peppers.
- Mix the peppers and seasonings into the meat mixture.
- In a large pot, pour one cup of the tomato juice and put on medium-high heat.
- Divide meat mix into roughly 2-inch balls and place into pot as it is heating up.
- When the bottom of the pot is lined in meatballs, pour tomato juice over the meatballs to make a kind of separating layer.
- Continue adding meatballs until the mixture is used up.
- Pour remaining juice and pasta sauce into pot.
- Cover and cook on medium-high for 30 minutes or until rice and beef are thoroughly cooked. (Stir to prevent burning)
Notes
- A combination of ground meats can be used; I like beef and turkey.
- Squeeze the juice out of the peppers to prevent the meatballs from turning thin and runny.
- Non instant rice can be used but it increases cooking time to roughly an hour.
3 responses to “Inverted Stuffed Peppers (Hidden Veggie) Recipe”
[…] them besides the stems. And lastly, the peppers actually made it! We’ve had a few rounds of stuffed peppers (inverted since I and my son are texture people) and Marcus has been waiting to try his habaneros. […]
Seems like too much sauce
It’s the way I and my mother always made it, but she did recently tell me you can use the tomato juice or sauce instead of both and still get a similar result