Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

Mid-July and the city is hot and alive in that particular July way. Restaurant patios are full. The farmers market is at peak. Patty calls at 7:15 every morning and I have stopped silently wishing she would call later and have started looking forward to it, which I think is either growth or just the fact that this summer feels different enough that everything in it is welcome.

I have been working on the blog more intentionally this summer — not more posts, but better ones. I am thinking about what the blog is actually for, which is a question I have been circling for three years. It started as a budget recipe repository. Then it became a pandemic lifeline. Then it became a place people leave memories about their grandmothers cooking. Now I think it is all of those things and also something about learning to cook as a practice — the failures and the repetitions and the small daily improvements that are not dramatic and are also the whole point.

I made ratatouille this week from all the summer vegetables at the farmers market: zucchini, eggplant, tomato, onion, bell pepper, herbs. Not the arranged kind from the movie — the casual kind, everything cut roughly and cooked down together with olive oil and garlic until jammy and soft. Served over polenta, which is a three-ingredient thing (cornmeal, water, Parmesan) that has become my favorite summer base. Ryan ate two portions and said he did not know he liked eggplant. I said he likes it prepared this way. He said he is going to have opinions about vegetables now. I said welcome to a marriage with me.

Pedro produced a pepper this week. One small red pepper, hanging there this morning when Ryan went to water. He came in and woke me up to tell me. I said that is wonderful, Ryan. He said it really is. It really is.

The morning Ryan came in from the garden to wake me up about Pedro’s pepper, I already had ratatouille leftovers in the fridge and summer vegetables piled on the counter, and something about that single small red pepper hanging there made me want to do something that honored the vegetable a little more deliberately. Stuffed peppers felt right — not a side role, not cooked down into something else, but the whole point of the dish. This is the recipe I made that weekend, and it has all the same spirit as the ratatouille: simple, vegetable-forward, the kind of thing that makes Ryan announce he has opinions about food now.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 40 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour | Servings: 4

Ingredients

4 large bell peppers (any color), tops cut off and seeds removed
1 cup long-grain white or brown rice, uncooked
2 cups vegetable broth
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium zucchini, diced small
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 cup shredded mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese, divided
Fresh parsley or basil, chopped, for garnish

Instructions

Cook the rice. Combine rice and vegetable broth in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer until liquid is absorbed, about 18 minutes for white rice or 40 minutes for brown. Set aside.
Preheat oven. Heat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a baking dish large enough to hold all four peppers upright.
Prep the peppers. Slice off the tops of the bell peppers and remove the seeds and membranes. If needed, trim a thin slice from the bottom so they stand flat without cutting through. Arrange in the prepared baking dish.
Saute the filling. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and zucchini and cook 3 minutes more, stirring occasionally, until the zucchini is just tender.
Build the filling. Stir in the drained diced tomatoes, black beans, Italian seasoning, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. Cook for 2 minutes to bring the flavors together. Remove from heat and fold in the cooked rice and 1/2 cup of the shredded cheese.
Fill and bake. Spoon the filling evenly into each bell pepper, packing it in gently and mounding slightly at the top. Top each pepper with the remaining cheese. Pour 1/4 cup of water into the bottom of the baking dish to help steam the peppers as they bake.
Bake until tender. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes, until the peppers are tender and the cheese is melted and lightly golden.
Garnish and serve. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving. Top with fresh parsley or basil.

Nutrition (per serving)

Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers — When Pedro Finally Came Through