One Thing I Ate: Beef & herb stuffed peppers

With tomatoes, dill, parsley, allspice, and lemon peel.

Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, we kick off cozy season with a stuffed pepper stew. Read past posts here, and please follow my Instagram, @fivethingsiate.  

Look, I know I just came back from Greece so you were expecting Vacation Content™, but I had the audacity to go home and immediately cook one of the best dinners I’ve ever made. So that’s what you’re getting today. Whaddya think this is, a restaurant? 

Jokes aside, every September I usually get hit hard by the blues, especially post-vacation. I’ve always felt melancholy when Summer ends, but ever since the pandemic, and that awful Winter of isolating in the Murphy bed death-trap apartment with no natural light, roaches and mice, it’s gotten worse. But this year, I’m somehow embracing it a little better than usual, by settling into cozy mode right away, so I’m going to honor that with a newsletter, in the hopes that it helps you find cozy mode, too.

Beef & herb stuffed peppers stew

Serves: many, at least 4

This is a simple recipe, but takes time (at least 1 hour).

This recipe was created out of simply following my whims and desires, with no deadline and not another person to distract me in sight, which is how all my best creations are made. The main cravings it’s based on is the stuffed zucchini recipe from this Syrian Jewish cookbook, and an Instagram reel I saw. The rest is simply what was available at the grocery market. The spice combination of a teeny tiny pinch of allspice, a mountain of fresh chopped herbs, a smattering of dried oregano, and lemon peel is simply magical.

You can stuff any vegetable – I snuck a tomato in there – and add whatever vegetables you like to the stew. This is a very adaptable 2-in-1 recipe (showstopper stuffed peppers, plus a delicious hearty stew), that must be served with fresh hot white rice (non-negotiable). 

For the stuffing:

• 1 lb ground grass fed beef, 80-85% lean

• 1 cup long grain rice

• 1/2 diced white onion

• 1 bunch of parsley, finely diced

• 1/2 bunch dill, finely diced

• 1 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp allspice

• 1/4 tsp white pepper

In a large mixing bowl, add beef and rice. Finely dice onion, parsley and dill – put that knifework to good use, and really go back and forth in a mince. Add to bowl, along with seasonings. Put on a plastic glove, and mix very well.

For the peppers:

• 6-8 bell peppers 

• You can also use tomatoes, onions, or potatoes

Clean and cut the tops off the peppers. Hollow out the insides. Use a spoon or a gloved hand to pack the inside with stuffing, not too tight. Set aside.

For the stew:

• Remaining ½ white onion, sliced

• 1 carrot sliced 

• 1/2 zucchini sliced

• 1 small potato sliced

• (but you can use vegetables of choice – only the onion is non negotiable.)

• 18 oz jar whole peeled tomatoes

• ½ tsp garlic powder

• 1 tsp oregano

• Salt and pepper to taste

• Peel of 1 lemon, peeled in strips with a vegetable peeler

• Fresh dill, diced

Heat a large dutch oven, or similarly large stew pot, over medium-high flame. Add a drizzle of olive oil and the onions. Saute till soft. Add remaining vegetables, and cook for another minute.

Nestle stuffed peppers in. Pour peeled tomatoes over, followed by a jar of water. Add salt, pepper, garlic powder, and oregano.  

Top with fresh dill, and nestle in strips of lemon peel.

Cover and simmer 1 hour or till peppers are soft and rice is cooked. 

Serve warm, over hot white rice. Enjoy.

XOXO,

Soph

P.S. If you make this, please let me know how it turns out. And yes I will write about Greece soon!