I think this dish was a sta­ple in many homes in the 60′s and 70′s. It’s kind of a clas­sic in the ranks of those huge Camp­bell soup-based casseroles my mom would make dur­ing the week. This has been updated and trimmed down and is a great exam­ple of a nat­u­rally GFCF din­ner. Serve this along­side a sim­ple green salad, Broc­coli Salad, or a refresh­ing Cucum­ber Salad and din­ner is done.

Hint: You can throw this together on the week­end when you may have a bit more time, and set it in the fridge for a day or two until you’re ready to cook. Same for the Broc­coli and Cucum­ber salads.

Because a dutch oven can be an expen­sive invest­ment (I buy them half off at Marshall’s or Tues­day Morn­ing), I’ve also adapted the recipe to work for a roast­ing pan in an oven.

Prep time: 30 min­utes
Total time: 1 hour 30 min­utes
Yield: Din­ner for 4 with left­overs
Spe­cial equip­ment: Dutch oven optional

6 large red or green bell pep­pers or a mix of both
2 T olive oil
2 stalks cel­ery
2 c. chopped yel­low onion (1 large onion)
3 cloves gar­lic
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef or turkey, cooked and drained
2/3 c. cooked white bas­mati rice (use the Herbed Rice recipe with­out adding the herbs and you’ll have left­overs)
1 T Hun­gar­ian paprika
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground pep­per
2 1/2 c. canned tomato sauce

1. If using the oven to cook, pre­heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cut off top 1/2 inch of pep­pers. Dis­card stems and seeds. Chop the tops and set aside.
3. Heat oil in dutch oven (or skil­let) over medium heat. Add onions, cel­ery and pep­pers. Saute for 5 min­utes. Add gar­lic and saute a moment longer and trans­fer entire mix­ture to large bowl.
4. Brown ground beef in dutch oven (or skil­let) until cooked through. Drain fat and trans­fer to bowl with onion mixture. Add rice, 1/2 c. tomato sauce, paprika, salt and pep­per and mix thoroughly.
5. Pour 1 1/2 c. tomato sauce into bot­tom or dutch oven (or roast­ing pan).
6. With large spoon, stuff mix­ture into pep­per cav­i­ties. Arrange in Dutch oven (or roast­ing pan) and spoon a table­spoon­ful of tomato sauce atop each stuffed pepper.
7. If using a dutch oven, cover, bring to a boil then reduce to a sim­mer, cov­ered for 15 min­utes. Open pot and ad 1/2 – 1 c. water, if nec­es­sary, to keep sauce from thick­en­ing and burn­ing. Cover for another 30 minutes.
8. If using a roast­ing pan, cover pep­pers with foil and place in oven for 30 min­utes. Remove foil and bake for another 20–30 min­utes uncov­ered until pep­pers are tender.