Unstuffed Pepper Bowls
Everything that's good about stuffed peppers — ground beef, peppers, onion, marinara, melty cheese, rice — without the half-hour of bell- pepper-hollowing-and-stuffing logistics. One skillet, four containers, Sunday-afternoon kind of cooking.
The case against stuffed peppers is the prep. You hollow the peppers out (annoying), parboil them (extra pot), make the filling, stuff each one, bake the whole thing for 40 minutes. The total time-to-table is over an hour and the payoff — peppers stuffed with stuff — could just as easily be peppers, plus stuff, in a bowl. So that's what this is.
You brown ground beef with onion and garlic, add chopped bell peppers and let them soften but stay slightly toothsome, stir in marinara, season aggressively, top with cheese. Serve over rice (or under it, depending on your bowl-architecture philosophy). The result tastes exactly like a stuffed pepper. The difference is that you ate at 6:45pm instead of 7:30, and you have one pan instead of four.
The photo is the meal-prep configuration — four glass containers, rice on one side, the peppers-and-beef mixture on the other, shredded mozzarella melted on top. This is the lunch box you grab on the way out the door Tuesday morning, microwave for 90 seconds at the office, and eat without thinking about it. Comfort food, made for the future you who will be very hungry and not at all interested in elaborate.
Method
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01
Cook the rice
Make the rice according to package directions (about 2 cups dry =
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02
Brown the beef
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the
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03
Aromatics
Push the beef to one side. Add the chopped onion to the empty side and
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04
Peppers and zucchini
Add the chopped bell peppers and zucchini. Cook 5 minutes, stirring
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05
Build the sauce
Stir in the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, salt,
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06
Cheese
Sprinkle the mozzarella evenly over the top. Cover the skillet (or
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07
Portion
Divide the rice into four meal-prep containers. Spoon the pepper