With the exception of mushrooms and potatoes (which aren’t really vegetables) I am not a fan of stuffed vegetables. You won’t be seeing any stuffed peppers or zucchinis on this blog any time soon. But then I came across this recipe from Dan of Mantitlement for unstuffed peppers . What a genius idea cause I often love the stuffing in those pesky stuffed vegetables. It is just what it is stuffed in that I am no so keen on. How about you? Are you a stuffed veggie lover?
When I first tasted this recipe, I wasn’t going to share it with you because I thought it was ok but not brilliant but the meal grew on me superfast as I ate more of it. As I was eating my dinner I was sitting there thinking this is ok which quickly turned in to I should have made more. So a heads up not to judge this recipe on your first spoonful. Isn’t it funny how sometimes meals do that to you.
I have adapted the original recipe slightly by adding some chili flakes, a dash of liquid smoke and tossing in some potatoes to let them soak up the flavours. The liquid smoke in particular just adds a little bit more depth to the flavours.
I am sure if you are clever you could do this all in one pot but I did some pre-cooking of the potatoes in my microwave after past bad experiences trying to get potatoes to cook in a one pot dish. You could throw in some diced sweet potato with the other vegetables to turn this into a one pot meal carbs included. Or of course you could just skip the carbs.
My dish is not as pretty as Dan’s as cooking only for one, I only used one coloured capsicum (bell pepper). I would definitely mix up the colours if I was doing a larger batch as it does prettier and so much of what you eat is with your eyes.
The dish has a bit of chopping and prepping and is not my absolute fastest to make, but it is still pretty quick and doesn’t require a lot of effort to cook. Prep time is about 10 minutes and cook time is about 35 minutes. Calorie wise the recipe with the potato has about 640 calories.
- 1 tsp of olive oil
- 130g (1/4 lb) of minced beef (ground beef)
- A third of a capsicum (bell pepper), diced
- 1/4 of a brown onion, diced
- 1/2 tsp of minced garlic (equal to half a clove)
- 1 tsp of soy sauce
- 1/8 tsp of dried chili flakes
- 1/4 tsp of liquid smoke
- 1 tsp worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp of cumin
- 1/2 tsp of salt
- 1/2 a cup (or just under) of tinned diced tomatoes
- 180g (0.4lb) of mini firm potatoes (I used desiree)
- Heat the olive oil in a skillet on a medium heat and once hot add minced meat.
- Brown the minced meat, about 5 minutes
- Once the meat is brown remove from the pan and set aside
- Add the onions, capsicum and garlic to the skillet and cook for about 10 minutes until softened.
- While the vegetables are softening, pop the potatoes in the microwave to cook on high for about 5 minutes. Before popping in the microwave pierce the skin of each potato a couple of times with a fork.
- Once the potatoes have cooked, quarter or halve depending on their size - you want decent bite sized pieces.
- Once the vegetables have softened add the meat back to the skillet.
- Add the soy sauce chili flakes, liquid smoke, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, cumin, salt and tinned tomatoes.
- Mix well and let simmer for about 15 minutes, tossing in the potatoes about half way through.
- Serve
I’ve been craving my mom’s stuffed peppers and cabbage rolls for ages and this post just reminded me of that. (Barring the potatoes.) One of these days I may even try to make them myself.
I hadn’t thought about cabbage rolls. I would be happy with them as a stuffed veggie. And I do like dolmades.