Unstuffed Peppers

Out of the six of us in our family; four of us really like to eat stuffed peppers.  In these hard economic times green peppers are very expensive for our budget.  To continue to enjoy stuffed peppers I developed my “Unstuffed Peppers” recipe.  I’m sure this meal has been created before but I use my mother’s tried and true stuff pepper recipe as the base.  My recipe is below.

Unstuffed Peppers

2 lbs. ground beef, ground turkey or Veggie soy crumbles

1 cup cooked rice (white or brown)

1/2 – 1 onion, depending on size, chopped

1-2 green peppers, depending on size – chopped

1 large can of tomato soup (I do prefer Campbell’s…tastes better)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

*  Add ground beef or ground turkey to large skillet along with the chopped onions and green peppers. 

*  Saute until meat is cooked through.  If necessary drain off fat and rinse with hot water.  This will get rid of as much unwanted fat as possible. 

*  Add the cooked rice to the meat mixture and mix together.

*  Add the can of tomato soup and mix together.

Salt and pepper to taste.  I honestly don’t add any additional salt.  For my family there’s enough sodium in the canned soup to provide the needed flavor.  However, I understand that my family enjoys their food with little to no salt at all so those of you that enjoy salt will find it too bland and will need to add extra.

I try to be frugal so I usually add some water to the empty can of tomato soup and swish it around to get as much of the condensed soup out of the can and into the pot. 

 

Vegetarian Substitution:

If you are vegetarian you can use soy crumbles instead of any meat.  *  Do not add the crumbles and fry with the onions and green peppers. 

*  Insteaad of oil you can add some water to the vegetables and steam them making sure to cover with a lid.  Make sure to drain any remaining water after the veggies are done. 

*  Continue with the recipe adding the rice and soup. 

*  After everything else has been added; bring the vegetarian crumbles into the dish.  All you have to do is to make sure the crumbles are mixed in and heated thoroughly.  If you add the crumbles during the cooking process with the veggies they will tend to disintegrate.  At least for me they did!

 

Tomato Soup Substitution:

If you don’t have tomato soup or not enough tomato soup you can substitute tomato sauce.  You will definitely need to salt the dish if using only tomato sauce.  Using tomato sauce instead of condensed tomato soup will change the flavor of the casserole but will do in a pinch.