This is our favorite stuffed pepper recipe. It's got an amazing flavor balance of savory, salty, spicy, and sweet. It's a complete meal in itself, but you can also serve it with a salad or flatbread.
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This Recipe is a Flavor Bomb!
You won't believe the tastes that hit your tongue when you eat this dish! The savory lamb, the Middle Eastern spices, the saltiness of the olives, and the sweetness of the bell pepper and cherries. (I use orange or red peppers because they're the sweetest.) There's no heat in this dish, just a complex flavor that I think you'll love!
Ingredients You'll Need
- bell peppers
- ground lamb
- dried cherries (you can substitute dried apricot, golden raisins, or currants)
- tomato sauce
- sliced black olives
- garlic
- turmeric
- cinnamon
- cumin
- cooked rice
Stuff Some Peppers Tonight!
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Cut the tops off the peppers and remove the seeds and white membranes. For a quick and easy way to do this, check out our post on How to Prep Bell Peppers for Stuffed Peppers. This post also explains how to pre-cook the peppers in the microwave so they bake faster!
Pre-cook the peppers in the microwave for 10 minutes (see the link above). If you skip this step you'll have to cook the filled peppers longer.
Put the lamb, garlic, cinnamon, turmeric, and cumin in a large skillet over medium heat.
Cook until the lamb is slightly pink, 3 to 4 minutes.
Add the cherries and tomato sauce and cook until mixture is hot, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.
Take the skillet off the heat and mix in the cooked rice and sliced olives.
Fill the peppers with equal amounts of the filling. Put the peppers in a baking dish and cover. (Tenting with tinfoil works well.) Back for 10 minutes.
Uncover the baking dish and bake for another 10 minutes. You can add some shredded cheese at this point if you like.
Serve it up and prepare for compliments! Add a salad or flatbread if you like.
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📖 Recipe Card
Middle Eastern Flavored Stuffed Peppers
Special Equipment Needed
- 1 Large skillet
- 1 9x13 baking dish
Ingredients
- 6 bell peppers any color
- 1 pound ground lamb
- 1 teaspoon garlic chopped
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
- ½ cup dried cherries
- 1 cup cooked rice
- 1 (2.25-ounce) can sliced black olives drained
- Shredded cheese optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Cut the tops off the peppers and remove the seeds and white membranes. Put them in a microwave-safe casserole dish and cook for 10 minutes Set aside to cool while you prepare the filling.6 bell peppers
- In a nonstick skillet, cook the lamb, garlic, cinnamon, turmeric, and cumin over medium heat until the lamb is slightly pink, 3 to 4 minutes.1 pound ground lamb, 1 teaspoon garlic, 1 teaspoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 2 teaspoons cumin
- Add the cherries and tomato sauce and cook until mixture is hot, about 3 minutes. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce, ½ cup dried cherries
- Remove the skillet from the heat and mix in the cooked rice and sliced olives. Fill the peppers with equal amounts of the filling.1 cup cooked rice, 1 (2.25-ounce) can sliced black olives
- Cover the baking dish and bake for ten minutes.
- Uncover the baking dish. Put some shredded cheese on top of the peppers if you like. Bake for 10 minutes.
Nutrition Estimate
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Elaine says
Great flavors, and a nice change from my standard stuffed pepper recipe using ground beef or lamb and rice, cabbage and tomato sauce. Hint: If you cut a little too much off the bottom of the pepper to make it stand upright, you can use the piece you cut off to plug the hole from the inside and keep the filling where it belongs. Enjoyed this dish very much!
Grey says
That's a brilliant solution to the leakage problem! I'll update the post to include it. Thanks!
And stay tuned, I'm working on some new international stuffed peppers. Look for them soon at International House of Stuffed Peppers!