VeganMoFo: Mama A's Stuffed Peppers

(Not the prettiest looking dish, I know...)

Recipe: Stuffed Peppers
Family Member: Doc’s Mom

Brief Description: Obviously, these weren’t something I remember growing up with, but I made them last night and they were tasty! I think next time I won’t parboil the peppers first. I definitely also didn’t bake the stuffed peppers for more than 15 minutes. I accidentally mixed the tomato sauce in with the filling, but it still came out well. And I guess my peppers were puny because I definitely had a TON of filling left over.

Original Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
2 cups cooked rice
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 TBSP. vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes, drained
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup bread crumbs
4 large green bell peppers
2 cups tomato sauce

Original Directions:
In pan, saute onion and garlic in oil over medium heat until soft. Add ground beef and saute until brown. Stir in tomato, thyme, salt and pepper. Remove from heat; stir in parsley, bread crumbs, and rice. Mix well. Stuff parboiled peppers until almost full; pour tomato sauce over top. Cover and bake 30-35 minutes at 375F.

Vegan Notes: I used Lightlife’s Gimme Lean Ground Beef style meat substitute for this dish and it worked well. UPDATE: I just finished up the last stuffed pepper and think I would have preferred tempeh or tofu in place of the "meat;" tempeh prepared similarly to that in the Vegan Sausage Pastry Puffs from Vegan Brunch. Mmmm.

As an aside... I served this with cubed and baked apple, squash, and sweet potato and oh my gosh. What an excellent combination. I put a few grinds of lemon pepper, a few shakes of salt, a quarter of an onion sliced, and a sprig or two of parsley. After baking for about 40-50 minutes, the apple/squash/sweet potato were so soft and there was a deliciously sweet sauce sitting in the pan. Yummm.