I've always like stuffed peppers but I wanted to jazz them up a little by replacing the typical ground beef with ground lamb, orzo instead of rice and a tastier sauce with a little bit of "oomph" instead of tomato soup.
Prepare half a box of orzo according to package directions.
Basically, once water is boiling, put half a box of orzo in and cook for 9 minutes.
Brown a pound of ground lamb with diced onions with black pepper and a bit of minced garlic.
I can almost smell this "deliciousness" as I look at the photo below.
Drain lamb and combine with the cooked orzo in a mixing bowl.
Add crumbled feta cheese to the mix.
This already smells and looks good enough to eat on its own!
Put water on to boil for the green peppers.
I bought these at the local farmers market this past weekend and they were beautiful!
When you are purchasing green peppers, look for ones deep green in color and rather large and roundish ones so there will be enough room for the stuffing. Do not buy ones with soft spots or bruises. Tall skinny ones may work but I tend to prefer the rounder shorter ones for stuffing.
With the pepper on its side cut off the top with a sharp knife. Cut as little as possible. Then take the knife and cut around the inside so that the "core membranes" can be removed. Be careful not to cut into the side of the pepper though. Scoop out the insides and seeds.
Below is pretty close to what they should look like before you boil them.
Once the water is boiling, gently place the peppers in the water for 4 minutes. Immediately remove them with tongs. Do not dump the water. The peppers will be fragile.
Place them on waxed paper so that they don't stick and can cool down before stuffing.
Meanwhile, you should be making your tomato sauce. I never use Prego or Ragu or any grocery store jar sauce. I suppose if you want to you can but in my opinion it's full of salt and using jarred sauce will ruin the taste of the meal.
I typically get a salt free fat free can of crushed tomatoes as the base to the sauce. Then you can add whatever spices you want to add. In this case, I only add black pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon to taste. Those spices all go well with lamb. Many use allspice which I presume is fine but I haven't been brave enough to try that out yet. How much spice to use? Well, I hardly ever measure. I season to taste. So start a little at a time, let it simmer and combine with the tomatoes and then try it! You'll know what you like and if you think it needs more of something, then add it. Just add it a little at a time. You can always add more; you can't remove it once you've put it in there!
At this point in the summer, it would be fun to buy a boatload of fresh tomatoes and make my own sauce as well. Perhaps that is an upcoming project for me!!
Stay tuned.
Spray a Pyrex glass dish or some sort of shallow casserole dish. (I use olive oil spray - better for you than Pam!) Spoon some of your sauce along the bottom of the pan - not a lot.
Put the peppers upright in the casserole dish and, using a spoon (or your hands), fill the peppers with the lamb/orzo/feta mixture. This amount would be enough for four stuffed peppers but I only made two. Regardless, you will have extra "stuffing" and should put that around the peppers in the dish.
It's always good to have extra "guts"!
Next, spoon the sauce over the peppers but do not smother them. You just want it to be on top. Also spoon some sauce over the stuffing that is surrounding the peppers. Then sprinkle some crumbled feta cheese over top of everything.
Loosely cover with foil and put in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes.
(45 minutes if you have 4 or more peppers)
When done, the peppers should still be a tad crunchy. I hate soft peppers!
Remove the foil and let it set for a few minutes.
Put one of the stuffed peppers on a plate and scoop some of the extra stuffing to put on the side. This recipe takes some time to put together but the end result of "yumminess" is definitely worth it!
While I didn't pair with any wine last night, I have paired with wines before. A light red wine would go perfectly with this dish - a Pinot Noir is my suggestion. This is not a "big" dish so it shouldn't have a "big" wine but you definitely want to go red.
Kalí óreksi!
(That's bon appetit in Greek)
I am not a glutton - I am an explorer of food.
― Erma Bombeck
― Erma Bombeck
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