Over the weekend my husband and I went to a charity event in Vancouver in support of a charity I have been volunteering at for years and is very near and dear to my heart. The event included a mock grocery store in which they sold all the groceries at 1940's prices. Imagine buying bananas at 5 cents a pound, meat at unbelievably cheap prices. The best part all of the money goes towards the children in BC that need our help.
In our loot, we bought a large bag of sweet bell peppers for $2. There were about 8 in the bag, far too many for us to eat and for the deal I would hate it if they went bad. In my continuous effort to not waste food, I decided to try my hand at stuffed peppers.
Most of my savoury recipes comes from my mom as she is my best memory of what real cooking should be. My mother would make and still makes as many homemade meals as possible. I guess that's where I learned it from. I believe what you create is from your heart and is made with love, no matter what it is or how it tastes.
My mom, unfortunately did not have a recipe for stuffed peppers. So as per usual I surfed my regular blogs and google of course. All the recipes I ran across either were made with instant rice which a) I don't own b) don't know if I would ever own or they were made with ingredients that my acts-fussy-but-really-isn't husband won't eat. Crabapples.
I made a couple changes to the original recipe, I used ground turkey instead of sausage and pepper jack cheese instead of monterey jack. These are also really good the next day and could be prepared ahead, just prepare beforehand then refrigerate and bake when ready.
Stuffed Peppers
[Adapted from Martha Stewart]
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1 pound ground turkey
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes
3/4 cup couscous
4 red bell peppers (about 2 pounds), halved lengthwise, seeds and ribs removed
1/2 cup shredded pepper Jack cheese (about 2 ounces)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, 1/2teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Cook until onion is translucent, about 3 minutes.
Add ground turkey, and cook, breaking up with the back of a spoon, until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Add tomatoes and 1 cup water; cook until slightly thickened, about 7 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in couscous.
Fill pepper halves with couscous mixture. Arrange peppers in a baking dish just large enough to hold them. Add 1/2 cup water. Cover with aluminum foil, and bake until peppers are tender, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove foil, and sprinkle with cheese. Return to oven and bake, uncovered, until cheese has melted and peppers are very tender, 10 to 15 minutes more.
