We’ve been experiencing interesting climate changes here. It’s rainy and cold one day, it’s sunny and warm the other day. It’s difficult to decide what to wear every morning, so the first thing I do after waking up every morning is to open the window and check how it is outside. However, the most surprising event occured last week. I was so perplexed as soon as I went out in the early morning. Everywhere was full of yellowish dust and mud. All buildings, roads, cars, trees were all in dust. It was like a scene from a movie about a natural disaster. Moreover, to my surprise it became as dark as evening at noon and finally a heavy rain started. Fortunately, it cleaned all the dirt. I am absolutely bored of this indecisive weather and wish the real Spring, when several festivals are organized, comes very soon.
There isn’t a festival here yet, but there is one miles away from here. Last week when surfing my favorite blogs, I saw Daily Spud’s post announcing Paddy’s Day Food Parade on the 17th and I decided to join her with a recipe. I hadn’t heard about this special day until then but as I love to involve in any cultural events, I thought it would be great to be a part of St. Patrick’s Day. When I made a quick research, I learnt that the color of the day was originally blue, but then it was changed into green. I couldn’t find the reason of this change, though. I started to think what to cook for the day. Then Spud said anything green would be ok. When I was checking the refrigerator to see what we had green, hubby asked “Why don’t you make a classic stuffed green pepper?” I wasn’t even aware that I hadn’t written a post on it until then. So I want to send this recipe to Paddy’s Day Food Parade held by Daily Spud with my best wishes.
Biber Dolması
Ingredients
- 10 green bell peppers
- 1 small tomato, chopped
- 10 tbsp rice (one for each pepper)
- 2 large onions, chopped thinly
- ½ tbsp pepper or tomato paste
- 2 tsp dried mint
- 1 tbsp currant
- 1 tbsp pine nuts (optional) (I didn’t use it as I don’t like it much in dolma)
- 1tsp ground black pepper
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ cup minced parsley
- Juice of half lemon
- 1 cube sugar
- ¼ cup hot water
- ½ cup olive oil
- Salt
Heat olive oil and saute the chopped onion (and pine nuts if you use)until light brown.
Wash the rice and add it into the pot. Stir it for a few minutes until the rice grains get a bit crispy.
Add the rest of the ingredients except parsley into the pot. Cook it over the lowest heat until it absorbs all the water.
Then add the parsley, mix it and let it cool.
Note: If you cook the filling mixture, the duration of cooking the dish gets shorter. But you don’t have to cook the mixture in advance, you can just mix all ingredients as raw. Then the duration of cooking gets longer.
Wash the peppers , cut their tops and discard the seeds. Do not throw their tops away, we will useit to cover the peppers after they are stuffed.
Stuff the peppers with the mixture leaving a little space near their top. Do not stuff them so tight as the rice will rise a bit more. And put the tops of peppers on each stuffed pepper.
Place the stuffed peppers in a pan. Don’t put them on one another.
Pour some water (about 1 cup) into the pan until the half of peppers. Cook it over medium heat until the rice gets soft enough. It takes about 40 minutes.
Serve them warm or cold with lemon slices. And as usual a bowl of homemade yogurt goes very well with dish for me.
27 Comments on "Stuffed Green Pepper"
Oh Zerrin, I am thrilled that you were able to join in! Anything green is, of course, more than acceptable and those stuffed peppers sound absolutely delicious. I also love the cartoon – just too cute for words
The peppers are adorable! Such a wonderful presentation.
Love it! You are such an inspiration! Thanks Zerin
WOW! This picture is stunning. I bet this is very flavorful.
I hear you on the weather. It’s bee really weird these past several weeks. At this point I just prepare for whatever Mother Nature’s mood will be.
Delicious pepper!!
Your filling is great. It has really nice sweet flavors inside.
Green peppers are a fantastic idea for St. Paddy’s Day! I love the currants and pine nuts in this recipe, it sounds delicious!
Often, I eat the stuffing and discard the pepper
Love your peppers; you know stuffed peppers are usually my least favorite in the lebanese cuisine; maybe if I tried your version, with the currants and all these varied flavors, i would change my mind!
Yummy stuffing for these gorgeous green peppers!
Great looking pepper! I love all the ingredients (except maybe for cinnamon), perfect choice for st. Patrick’s day!
Stuffed green peppers are about perfect and yours look like heaven as usual what a wonderful recipe, I love the dried mint and currents added. Those are not usual ingredients for me with stuffed peppers but cannot wait to give them a try!
These stuffed peppers looks so delicious! I love the mint and cinnamon in the recipe, and the currants sound like they add a nice sweetness to it all. It’s perfect not only for Daily Spud’s Parade, but for a meal any time of the year!
I hope that the real spring will soon arrive for you!
This looks absolutely appetizing, I love those currants & pine nuts and you even had the time to do a little research. The Irish is definitely proud!
Merhaba zerrin
it looks so delicious I’ve never eaten stuffed green pepper, I’ll try ur recipe
we have the same thing here in Morocco: weather is not good at all, am waiting for spring
thanks
Pretty Peppers. We love stuffed peppers.
Now, this is lovely food!!!
MMMMMMMMMM,…I love stuffed peppers, even yellow & orange one’s!
I like how you saved the tops and put them back on the pepper like a cap or hat. Great way of presenting them also.
The bell peppers look grand! Perfect timing for my dinner
Cheers,
Gera
Love your blog design and the hand drawn pictures! Stunning photographs!
I love stuffed peppers, yours looks amazingly delicious!
I love the addition of cinnamon! They look delicious!
I just love stuffed peppers! What sets a great stuffed pepper apart is how it is filled – your stuffing sounds heavenly! I would try it one day with meat instead of rice for a meal!
Zerrin, now I am hungry for stuffed green peppers! This is one of my favorite recipes.
Adding mint is an interesting touch to stuffed peppers…
Trackbacks for this post