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I bought two of the biggest green bell peppers today I have ever seen in my entire life! The larger was 4½” in diameter! They had the thickest walls (nearly ½” thick) and were surely the sweetest I’ve ever tasted. Usually a recipe of meat filling for peppers will make four stuffed peppers, but these two colossal specimens took ALL the filling and they weren’t even overflowing like the little ones usually are!! I didn’t have a recipe and just decided to take some ground meat, cheese it up with several cheeses, add some typical Greek seasonings and see what resulted. Glad I did, as these came out GREAT!! Then, after dinner, I Googled “Greek Stuffed Peppers” and indeed, they do make something similar in Greece, but with rice added to the filling, which I can’t eat on a low-carb diet. They call them Piperies Gemistes. My recipe isn’t authentic Greek, but they sure came out with a great Greek food taste to them. These are only Induction friendly if you omit the red wine.
INGREDIENTS:
4 3-oz. bell peppers, any color (try to select peppers with fairly flat bottoms)
16 oz. ground beef (or ground lamb)
2 oz. onion, chopped fine
1 Roma tomato, chopped
1 T. tomato paste
1/3 c. water
¼ c. red wine
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. crushed dried oregano
¼ c. parsley, chopped
½ c. feta, rinsed in strainer under cold water
½ c. Monterey Jack cheese
2 tsp. Parmesan
VARIATION: Use some dill weed in place of the cinnamon
DIRECTIONS: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cut the tops off peppers and save for some other use. Remove seed core. Boil the main pepper bottoms 3-4 minutes to begin to tenderize them a bit, which will greatly shorten overall baking time on this dish. Remove and drain and place in baking dish. Preheat the oven to 350º at this point. Next brown the ground meat in a non-stick skillet. Add onion, garlic, tomato, tomato paste, wine and water. Next add the parsley and spices. Simmer about 10 minutes, stirring, until tomato and onion are fully tender and the liquid is evaporating nicely. Add feta and Jack cheese. Stir to blend and melt. Remove from heat. Stuff the peppers and sprinkle the tops with the Parmesan cheese. Pop in preheated 350º oven for 30-35 minutes or until pepper shells are tender, but not overcooked and falling apart. Serve with a nice Greek salad.
NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 4 stuffed peppers, each contains:
370 calories
23.18 g fat
8.15 g carbs, 2.1 g fiber, 6.05 g NET CARBS
29 g protein
720 mg sodium
548 mg potassium
42% RDA Vitamin B6, 108% B12, 12% calcium, 19% copper, 38% iron, 12% magnesium, 12% manganese, 37% niacin, 38% phosphorous, 32% riboflavin, 39% selenium, 12% thiamin and 75% zinc (a very nutritious meal)
I made these last night and just had it for lunch. I used red bell peppers so they would be a little sweeter and they turned out great! Thanks for the wonderful recipe, this is definitely a keeper.
I’m delighted you enjoyed them. I like to do them with the red peppers too sometimes. I LOVE stuffed peppers and like to try different fillings all the time.
These look absolutely wonderful! My family are not fans of stuffed peppers but I might make some all for myself, ha ha. They might go for these anyway.
My husband isn’t a great fan of bell pepper either. But he LOVED the stuffing and liked that a lot. He ate most of his pepper “container”, too, this time. I was surprised!
Those are giant peppers! I don’t usually find green peppers sweet, so that was interesting too. Nice recipe – interesting Luana!
The one on the right in the pic was just mind boggling, Jen. Of course, hubby got the monster on the right and I ate the (only slightly smaller) other one.
I saved out some seeds for next year planting in my little garden, as I want to see if I can grow THIS variety, which is no doubt a hybrid.
Stuffed peppers are very common in Greece. They’re stuffed with rice or small amounts of ground meat, but mostly rice. It’s basically homestyle/peasant food, where meat appears in small amounts if at all. With a meat and rice mixture, herbs like dill, parsley and mint add flavor. Cheese is not something stuffed, but served at most meals.
Frequently large tomatoes are hollowed out and stuffed the same way, and the same is done with zucchini, too.
Thanks for your reply, Luana. Welcome to my website! Yes, I actually have a bulgher/meat filled Greek Stuffed Tomato recipe I found many years ago. But race isn’t eaten on a low-carb diet. So I have to make do with other stuffing ingredients. And I’ve stuffed zucchini, but not with Greek seasonings before. I’ll have to try that!