Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

I love stuffed Peppers. Love them. I'm not sure why, as my family doesn't. They like the filling, but not the container. Me, I love eating the container of my food. What fun! This recipe was a great twist on stuffed peppers and I had to try it.

Tuesday I started prepping it and put some wild rice in my microwave rice cooker to cook for it. Instead I ended up with this melted mess of plastic and rice, and an almost fire in my kitchen. So we went out to eat on Tuesday and Wednesday, after spending most of the day cleaning up, finally had the stuffed peppers.

These were really great. The filling was awesomely delicious. I really appreciated that they were a combo of rice, beans & meat instead of an all meat based filling.

Southwestern Stuffed Peppers (from Kalyn)

6 large red, yellow, orange, or green peppers
1 lb. extra lean ground beef
(less than 10% fat)
1-2 tsp. olive oil if needed
1 onion, chopped
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can diced tomatoes and juice
1 can (4 oz.) diced green chiles with juice (Anaheim chiles, not jalapenos)
1 tsp. Ancho chile powder
1 tsp. ground cumin
2 cups cooked white rice
1 1/2 cups grated cheese

Preheat oven to 375 F.

In large frying pan, brown ground beef well and drain off fat. Push ground beef to the side, add a bit of olive oil if pan seems dry and saute onion 3-4 minutes, until well softened. Add rinsed black beans, tomatoes and juice, green chiles and juice, chile powder, and cumin. Reduce heat to low and simmer 20-30 minutes, until most of the liquid has evaporated.

While mixture simmers, cut tops off peppers and remove seeds. Cut a very thin slice from the bottom of each pepper so peppers are flat on the bottom and will stand upright. (Some peppers might not need this.)

When mixture in pan seems dry, turn off heat. Let cool about 5 minutes, then mix in cooked rice and cheese. Stuff each pepper with the meat/rice mixture, pushing it down so peppers are tightly filled.
Place peppers in a dish small enough to hold them compactly and cover with foil. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Remove foil, and bake 10-20 minutes more, until tops are slightly browned and pepper skin can be pierced easily with a fork. Serve immediately.