Wild Rice and Chard Stuffed Sweet Red Peppers
Most stuffed pepper recipes tell you to blanch or steam the peppers before filling and baking them, but I’ve found a way to skip the blanching step and still have the peppers come out tender. The trick is to add a little water to the bottom of the baking dish, cover it with foil and “steam-bake” the peppers for the first 20 minutes of baking time. Then off comes the cover for the second half of the baking time.
This recipe takes well to substitution: spinach can be substituted for the chard and provolone cheese for the feta. For meat eaters, replace one cup of the wild rice with cooked Organic Prairie breakfast or Italian sausage.
Prep Time: 30
Total Time: 70
Servings: 8
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons Organic Valley butter
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 2/3 cups chopped leeks
6 loosely packed cups chopped Swiss chard leaves
Salt and pepper
3 to 3 1/2 cups cooked wild rice (leftovers work great here)
2 Organic Valley eggs, beaten
4 medium-large sweet red peppers
4-6 ounces Organic Prairie feta, crumbled
Instructions:
1. Heat butter in a large, deep skillet over medium flame. Add the oregano and leeks and cook, stirring occasionally, until leeks are nearly tender, about 8 minutes.
2. Raise heat to medium-high, add chard and season it generously with salt and pepper. Cook, tossing occasionally, until chard is wilted and tender, about 6-10 minutes. Let cool, then stir in wild rice and eggs. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Cut the red peppers in half through the stems, so that you end up with 8 pepper “boats” with rounded bottoms. (Leave the stems on, both for looks and to help hold the stuffing in.) Stuff the pepper halves with the filling, mounding it up slightly in each one. Place stuffed peppers to fit snugly in a baking dish. Spoon a few tablespoons of water into the bottom of dish and cover it tightly with foil.
4. Bake 20-25 minutes, then remove the foil. Sprinkle feta over the peppers and continue to bake, uncovered, another 15-20 minutes. Serve hot, right from the oven.
Copyright by Terese Allen
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