Peppers are something I have always eaten, but never been too excited about. I like them in a stir-fry, or salad or on a pizza…and that’s about it. Lately, I’ve been eating more of them, and the price has become very reasonable,  so I decided to try stuffed peppers for dinner. Then I wound up messing around with another variation.
I decided that a ground beef and rice stuffing would probably be the easiest to try. I started by preheating the oven to 375F, and seeding the peppers and cutting them in half. Then I parboiled them for ten minutes, while I browned the beef and added some diced onion and sweet chili sauce. I had some pre-cooked rice in the fridge, so added that to the meat, along with some fresh basil, and an egg. Then I stuffed the pepper shells with the mixture and put them in a casserole dish. I sauteed some onions until golden brown, then added a can of diced tomatoes, basil, oregano, crushed garlic and cooked it for about 15 minutes, then spread most of the mixture on top of the stuffed peppers and popped it in the oven to bake for 30 minutes. I added grated cheddar cheese on top for the last few minutes.
I still had 4 pepper halves, so I toasted some pine nuts, and put them in a bowl. I added crumbled feta cheese, fresh basil, chopped fresh tomatoes and chopped zucchini. I stuffed the remaining pepper halves with this mixture, put some of the  tomato mixture on a pie plate and rested the peppers on it. I put that in the oven for 15 minutes.
Result? The ground beef stuffed peppers were fairly tasty, but I really enjoyed the pine-nut/feta cheese ones.
Do you play around in the kitchen? Ever had a last minute experiment come out better than the dish you meant to make?