Some dishes just make sense. Now, I wasn’t around when the bell pepper was created, but it was clearly made to be stuffed. What should you stuff it with? Anything you want! That’s what makes stuffed peppers so fun! I love a good breakfast pepper with eggs, sausage, onions, mushrooms, etc. But my favorite is a shepherd’s pie stuffed peppers.
Personally, I like to boil my peppers for about 8 minutes before I stuff them. It just makes for a softer end product that I can cut with my fork. If you like a crunchier pepper, you can skip this step.
Next, make the base of the shepherd’s pie. Like anything else, there are different interpretations. In general, a shepherd’s pie is ground beef cooked with onions, carrots, and peas covered with mashed potatoes. Carrots take a bit longer to cook, so I start by sauteing them over medium heat for 5 minutes. Then, I add onions, beef, and seasoning and cook just long enough to brown the beef. Just before I stuff the peppers, I add the peas.
Now, I love mashed potatoes, but sometimes they can be a little bland. For these stuffed peppers, I like to use sweet potatoes. Cooked sweet potatoes, coconut milk, and green chilies.
Easy Shepherd’s Pie Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients
6 large red pepper (red capsicum) - any color
1 pound ground beef (minced beef)
3 medium carrots - peeled and sliced
1 medium yellow onion - diced
½ can peas
2 sprigs rosemary - chopped
2 sprigs thyme
1 pinch salt
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
3 large sweet potatoes- 1 can green chilies - 4-ounce
Instructions
- Cut the tops off of the peppers and clean out ribs and seeds.
- Boil peppers for 8 minutes and set aside to dry.
- Saute peeled and sliced carrots for 5 minutes in coconut oil or other fat.
- Add diced onion, beef, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, and chopped herbs. Saute just long enough to brown beef.
- Cook 3 large sweet potatoes. I wrap mine in wet paper towels and microwave them until cooked, but you could also wrap them in aluminum foil and bake for an hour at 350°F.
- Smash sweet potatoes with coconut milk and green chilies.
- Stuff peppers almost to the top with beef filling. If the peppers don’t stand up on their own, I like to cut them in half and do a little half of the peppers.
- Top peppers with sweet potato mixture and bake at 350°F for 30 minutes.
