The key to making this Italian meal is using canned crushed tomatoes instead of garlic-and-onion-spiked jarred spaghetti sauce, and stuffing the rice-turkey-tomato mixture into red or yellow peppers (green ones can irritate the gut).
Ingredients
- 2½ teaspoons olive oil
- ½ pound lean ground beef or turkey
- 2 large bell peppers (any color except green), tops cut off and chopped, cores removed
- 1 small parsnip, grated
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme, or ½ teaspoon dried
- ½ teaspoon finely chopped fresh oregano, or ¼ teaspoon dried
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 cup prepared brown rice (frozen or packaged is okay)
- 1 cup canned crushed fire-roasted tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon roasted salted pumpkin seeds
How to Make It
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- In a large skillet, heat 1 teaspoon of the oil over medium heat. Add the beef and cook, stirring occasionally, until just barely cooked through, about 3 minutes.
- If the skillet seems dry, add the remaining 1½ teaspoons oil. Add the chopped bell pepper tops, parsnip, parsley, thyme, oregano, salt, and black pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the bell pepper softens, about 5 minutes. Add the rice and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes more.
- Meanwhile, stand the bell peppers in a microwave- and oven-safe 9-inch pie plate or 8-inch square baking dish. (If the peppers don’t stand up, carefully trim the bottoms, without cutting through, so that they’re level.) Add 1 tablespoon water and microwave until the peppers are very soft, about 5 minutes.
- Divide the meat mixture between the peppers. Pour the crushed tomatoes around the peppers. Bake until the peppers are softened and the tops are browned, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds before serving.
