Stuffed Peppers with Spiced Beef

In my previous two posts, I talked about Dinner for the Girls where some of The Lovely Wife's friends came over. This is the last post about that and I feature the Stuffed Peppers that I made.

I've made stuffed peppers before and even posted about it. Usually, I slice the capsicum into quarters and then stuff them but this time I decided to stuff them whole.

I found some lovely 'mini' capsicums at the market and I lobbed of their heads before stuffing them. I realised that the bottoms of the capsicums weren't flat so I would need to stand them in something. I used my muffin pan!

After stuffing them, I place the 'heads' back on top, fastened them together with a toothpick and then baked them.

This is what I did:

Stuffed Peppers with Spiced Beef
Ingredients
12 small capsicums
1 medium onion - chopped
2 cloves garlic - chopped
2 tsp oregano
4 red chillis - sliced
500g minced beef
2 slices whole meal bread
3 handfuls sunflower seeds
4-5 Tbsps Tomato Paste
Method
Cut of tops of capsicum and place in a muffin pan or similar container
Sautee onion, garlic and oregano till fragrant. Add in chiilis then then beef and cook well. Make breadcrumbs by whizzing the bread in a food processor. Set aside. Add the tomato paste to the beef and season with salt and pepper. Lightly fry the breadcrumbs and sunflower seeds till crispy and quickly stir into the beef mixture. Spoon into the capsicums and cover with tops. Fasten with a toothpick and bake in a preheated 200C oven for about 20mins or till capsicum is tender.

When it was time to serve the stuffed capsicums, I realised that they woulnd't stand on their own either, so I place each pepper into cupcake moulds.


I actually wanted to use Pine Nuts instead of sunflower seeds but pine nuts are just so blasted expensive in this part of the world.

The Stuffed Peppers turned out really delicious and they looked very colourful too! Next time I do this, I might toast the breadcrumbs and then sprinkle them on top before capping the peppers to get a 'crusty' layer on top. Nonetheless, the addition of breadcrumbs into the meat helped hold the meat together and it didnt all collapse when it was cut into.





This could even work as a main meal if you use large peppers. I will definitely make these again. I think stuffing whole peppers look a lot better, taste a lot better and are easier to do as well!