Turkey-Stuffed Red Pepper

Stuffed peppers are easy and sumptuous. I prefer the red or the orange peppers for their mild sweetness, rather than the green peppers. And the stuffing depends on the mood and what's available.

Purple peppers were the rage for a while if I could find it at the farmer's market. (Incidentally, Lesson Learnt: not wise to rely on free sites to host my pictures. Most of my food photos from the infancy of this blog are lost; and, I don't have a copy as I never did regular back-ups back then and my old laptop died... well, a series of unfortunate events, as they say, but quite propitious as I get to take fresh pictures when I make them again these days!)

The usual cranberry-pine-nut-rice stuffing like for dolma would be good for the peppers as well. But, to satisfy the protein cravings of the nicer half, these red peppers are stuffed with ground turkey.

Ground Turkey Stuffing:

1. Finely chop some red onions, red cabbage, carrots, celery, flat-leaf parsley, garlic 
2. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan, add the ground turkey, a sprinkling of salt, taco seasoning, and paprika and cook till done
3. Stir in the finely chopped veggies, cover and cook a few more minutes till veggies are tender yet crisp

Stuffed Peppers:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 425°F
2. Cut the bell peppers in half, brush with olive oil, sprinkle some salt and bake in the 425°F oven for about 5 minutes; turn down the oven to 375°F
3. Remove pepper halves from the oven, stuff with the prepared stuffing, cover the stuffing portion of the peppers with a small piece of aluminum foil
4. Return the stuffed peppers to the 375°F oven and bake for another 8 to 10 minutes till peppers are tender

Top with toasted pine nuts, chopped scallions and parsley or cilantro, and serve warm.