Sausage Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed peppers is one of those recipes I love to eat but don’t make very frequently because it takes so long to prepare. This Sausage Stuffed Peppers recipe uses a few shortcuts to make it faster. If you’ve already got some cooked rice on hand from following these meal planning ideas or as plain old leftovers, you can have this dinner on the table in 30 minutes. 

To make this meal on a weeknight, I use the timer feature on my rice cooker to have the rice ready when I get home from work, brown the sausages while I prepare the peppers, and fix a tossed salad while the peppers bake.  

Sausage Stuffed Peppers Ingredients

• 4-6 peppers, cored
• 2 bratwurst sausages*, casings removed
• 1 can diced tomatoes, fire roasted flavor*
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1-2 tsp Penzeys Tsardust spice mix (or your favorite spices)
• 2 cups cooked rice
• 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

*using flavorful sausage and tomatoes lets you omit the diced onion and garlic you otherwise might include

Sausage Stuffed Peppers Directions

• preheat oven to 425 ºF**
• prepare peppers by washing and removing tops and cores
• place peppers in a microwave safe dish, cover with plastic wrap, and heat on high for 4 minutes***
• let peppers stand, still covered, while you prepare the sausage mixture***
• in a large skillet, brown the bratwurst sausages, breaking into small pieces as they cook
• drain the browned sausages and return to skillet
• add the tomatoes, black beans, and spices, stir to blend, and heat through
• stir in rice and heat through
• stir in about half of the cheese
• uncover peppers and drain any collected water
• spoon the sausage mixture into the peppers and nestle in an oven-safe dish
• bake in preheated oven for 10 min
• sprinkle peppers with remaining cheese, return to oven, and bake for 10 more minutes until cheese is melted

** using a hotter oven helps reduce the baking time
*** these steps “blanch” the peppers, reducing the required baking time

Since making this recipe–and after years of searching for flat-bottomed peppers to use in stuffed peppers recipes–I learned that peppers can be sliced in half from top to bottom into “boats” and stuffed that way. I definitely will be trying that technique next time!

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Did I see stuffed pepper “boats” on your blog?

Do you have a favorite stuffed peppers recipe?