Stuffed Peppers with Pork and Rice in Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
2–4 servings
For the peppers
- Large bell peppers 4
- Pork (leg or shoulder) 0.5 kg
- Long-grain rice ½ cup (90 g)
- Onion 1
- Dried savory to taste
- Salt, ground black pepper to taste
- Vegetable oil for frying
For the sauce
- Tomato paste 1–2 tbsp (17–33 g)
- Sugar 3–4 tbsp (41–55 g)
- Flour 1–2 tbsp (10–20 g)
- Water 1 cup (200 ml)
- Salt, ground black pepper to taste
To serve
- Sour cream or natural sour milk to taste
- Parsley to taste
Step-by-step recipe
The filling
Choose the peppers. I’ll admit, for stuffing I prefer green peppers, and very large ones. For this amount of rice and pork, 4 large ripe peppers are enough.
Boil the rice in lightly salted water until almost done — 15 mins is usually enough. Drain the rice in a colander and rinse under cold running water. Let it drain and transfer to a large deep bowl.
Prepare the pork. Pick meat that isn’t too fatty — shoulder or leg works great.
Peel the onion and chop it finely. Fry the onion in sunflower oil until golden.
Mince the meat through a fine grinder plate to get smooth ground pork.
Mix the cooked rice with the fried onion and add to the ground pork.
Season the filling with a little salt, dried savory and ground black pepper.
In my experience, you can add quite a lot of savory — it is the main spice for aroma and what makes these peppers unique.
Mix everything thoroughly. Adjust the spices to taste.
Stuffing and simmering
Wash the peppers and cut off the tops with the stems — they will serve as lids for the stuffed peppers. Carefully remove the seeds and membranes with a knife.
Fill all the peppers with the meat mixture and cover them with the cut-off tops.
Place the peppers in a large pot and pour in boiling water from the kettle to cover them completely. Put the pot on the heat and cook for 40 mins.
Tomato sauce
A few minutes before the end of cooking, carefully pour all the liquid from the pot with the peppers into another pot. Put this pot of liquid on the heat and bring to a boil. Add 1–2 tbsp of tomato paste (17–33 g) — the tomato sauce should be quite tangy. Add 3–4 tbsp of sugar (41–55 g). The taste should be sweet and sour. Season with salt and pepper. In a cup, mix 1–2 tbsp of flour (10–20 g) with a cup of water (200 ml). Pour this thin batter into the pot of liquid, stirring vigorously. When the sauce comes to a boil, let it bubble for 3–4 mins.
Pour the sauce over the peppers. Cook for another 4–5 mins.
Serving
Serve the peppers hot, and only hot — very hot.
Sometimes they are served in small dishes warmed from below by a burner. But that’s top class, on par with eating salo with garlic as a chaser — a job for professionals!
Be sure to top the stuffed peppers with sour cream or natural sour milk and sprinkle with finely chopped parsley.
Calories and macros
1065 kcal
Serving ≈ 1050 g
- Protein52 g20% of kcal
- Fat54 g47% of kcal
- Carbs84 g33% of kcal
100 g101 kcalProtein 4.9 gFat 5.2 gCarbs 8 g
Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.
How did you like this recipe?
To Get It Right
Sauce without lumps
The flour is there to thicken the sauce. To keep it from floating in white lumps, first rub it into a little cold water until it’s like thick sour cream, then thin it with the rest of the water.
Other meat
Instead of pork, you can use ground turkey. There is a separate recipe for peppers stuffed with chicken.
Have your own trick for this recipe?
Questions and answers
How long do you cook stuffed peppers?
40 minutes in boiling water, then another 4–5 minutes in the tomato sauce. About 45 minutes in total.
How much rice do you need per kilo of ground meat?
One cup of uncooked rice (180 g) per kilo of meat. This recipe uses ½ cup of rice (90 g) for 0.5 kg of pork, which is enough for 4 large peppers.
Does the rice go into stuffed peppers raw or cooked?
In this recipe it’s cooked: long-grain rice is boiled until almost done, about 15 minutes, and rinsed with cold water. It finishes cooking inside the peppers.
How do you make the sauce for stuffed peppers?
It’s made from the liquid the peppers cooked in: tomato paste, 3–4 tbsp of sugar (41–55 g), salt, pepper and flour mixed with water. The sauce should be sweet and sour, and quite tangy.
Can you make stuffed peppers in the oven?
Yes. There are two baked versions: stuffed peppers in sour cream sauce, and stuffed peppers baked in a sour milk sauce.