I never liked stuffed bell peppers until I ditched the green ones and bought some red, yellow, and orange 3-packs instead. Replacing traditional rice with cabbage adds another veggie and gives a different texture. They take a bit of time but are well worth the effort.
Ingredients
- salted butter: 1 Tbsp
- lean ground beef: 2 pound
- medium head green cabbage: 0.5 piece (chopped)
- medium head red cabbage: 0.5 piece (chopped)
- medium onion: 1 piece (chopped)
- stalks celery: 3 piece (chopped)
- cloves garlic: 2 piece (minced)
- fire-roasted diced tomatoes: 2 cans (14.5 ounce cans)
- Worcestershire sauce: 1 Tbsp
- sea salt: 2 tsp
- oregano: 2 tsp (dried)
- basil: 1 tsp (dried)
- ground black pepper: 1 tsp
- red bell peppers: 6 piece
- olive oil: 2 tsp (or as needed)
- mozzarella cheese: 0.5 cup (shredded)
- provolone cheese: 0.5 cup (shredded)
Metric Conversion
Stages of cooking
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Oil the bottom and sides of two rectangular glass baking dishes.
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Melt butter in a 4- to 6-quart stockpot over medium heat. Add ground beef, green and red cabbage, onion, celery, and garlic. Stir in diced tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, salt, oregano, basil, and pepper. Cook until beef starts to brown and cabbage softens a bit, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir, and continue cooking for 10 to 15 minutes.
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While the beef cooks, prepare bell peppers: remove stems and cut peppers in half from top to bottom. Remove seeds and white membrane. Rub outsides of the peppers with olive oil and arrange, skin-sides down like edible bowls, in the prepared baking dishes.
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Strain beef mixture to remove excess liquid; scoop into peppers to fill and mound any extra on top or reserve for another use. Cover with foil.
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Cook in the preheated oven until peppers have softened, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove foil, top with mozzarella and provolone, and cook for an additional 5 minutes.
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Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before serving.
