What’s for Dinner? Spicy Turkey and Vegetable-Stuffed Peppers

By Caitlin Klein in Food on Jan 12, 2011 9:20PM

For dinner this week, try an alternative to your (snooze!) beef and rice-stuffed green peppers. This Chicagoist original recipe swaps ground turkey for ground beef, replaces the rice with vegetables, and burns you a new one with spices and jalapeno cheese. All of the vegetables in this recipe came from Stanley’s.

Chicagoist's Spicy Turkey and Vegetable-Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients (makes 4 stuffed peppers)
4 yellow or orange bell peppers, beheaded and innards scooped out
½ pound ground turkey
3 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon garlic salt
½ cup onion, diced
1 cup cauliflower, chopped
1 jalapeno, diced
1 can of diced tomatoes
3 tablespoons parsley, chopped
6 ounces of jalapeno or habanero cheese (3 ounces grated, 3 ounces sliced)

Directions

• Mix the spices (cayenne, red pepper flakes, and garlic salt) in with the raw turkey. Mmm. Raw turkey.


• In a sauté pan, lightly brown the ground turkey. You’re going to bake it later, so don’t sweat it if there is a little bit of pink left.


• When the turkey is partially browned, add the onion, cauliflower, jalapeno, and can of tomatoes (juice included). Simmer for 10 minutes to let the liquid reduce.


• Stir in the parsley and grated cheese.


• Stuff the bell peppers with the turkey mixture. Top with the sliced cheese.


• Bake, standing up, for 30 minutes or until the pepper is soft and the cheese is browned. We found this easiest to do by setting the bell pepper upright in a muffin tin. Easy squeezy.


• If your pepper won’t stand up on the plate, try slicing a small bit off the bottom of the pepper to create a flat surface. Voila. Dinner in a lovely edible container.