CNI Recipe of the Month

Chris grew up in the Northeast with big dreams in a tiny town. He made the trek to Los Angeles in a VW bus he bought off eBay in 2003, and hasn’t looked back (well, except for the occasional holiday).

His hobbies include screenwriting, filmmaking, photography, learning guitar and drums, and designing board games. He likes Spielberg, Jerry Goldsmith, Deep Purple, Mastodon, Dexter, The Holographic Universe, and Joseph Campbell.

Super-Stuffed Peppers

6 large peppers ( mix green & red)
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup sweet peas
1 lb ground turkey
1 cup rice
1 cup water
1 can spaghetti sauce (16 oz. or so)
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Some Ketchup
1 tbsp ground sage
8 oz shredded cheese (cheddar or mozzarella)
2 cups mashed potatoes
Some butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Start cooking rice (with the rice and water smarty pants)
Start boiling water for mashed potatoes

Start browning the turkey
Dice/press the garlic and throw in with the turkey
Season with salt and pepper
Drain.

Prepare peppers by cutting off the tops (just where the curve of the top meets the side). Scoop out the seeds and the inner dividers. Rinse the inside out. Save the tops!

Dice the onion. Throw about a 1/4 cup of the onion into the ground turkey pan. Add the Worcestershire sauce, peas (frozen ok), and sage. Put on medium heat and pour in the spaghetti sauce to the desired amount.

When the potatoes are soft enough for mashing, take ‘em out. Turn off the heat. Use some tongs and submerge the peppers into the water. Cover. If you can’t fit all 6, go out and buy a bigger pot. Or, rotate them. The idea is to slightly soften each pepper, so as to not require too long in the oven, and also to keep them from drying out. Now go make that mashed potato already!

When the rice is done, spoon it into the turkey mixture pan so you have about equal parts each.

Put the peppers in a baking pan or sheet. Fill them about 3/4 the way with the turkey and rice mixture (I hope you got some big peppers!). Top the last 1/4 with the mashed potato. Add a butter dollop to each one. Leave the tops off to the side for now. Put the peppers in the oven. Clean up your kitchen for like 45 minutes. Back to the oven. Pull the pan out. Now it’s time to top each pepper with cheese. Okay, now you can put the pepper tops on. Back in the oven they go for 15-25 minutes depending on how firm you want them. Serve ‘em hot and enjoy!