Easy recipe for Romanian stuffed peppers or Ardei umpluti, an everyday dish in Transylvania!
Stuffed peppers recipe
Stuffed peppers or Ardei Umpluti is an everyday dish in Romania.
Here is a dish that can be found in many countries, in various forms: stuffed eggplants, stuffed tomatoes… here are stuffed peppers!
If you sometimes wonder how to clear your conscience by eating a few vegetables with a lot of meat? Well I think this recipe should please you.
The amount of stuffing will depend on the size of peppers you find. Our advice is to look for light green sweet peppers (as pictured), either native to Romania, or sometimes found on store shelves in Turkey or North Africa. They definitely don’t taste the same as the red and green peppers you find in supermarkets (these will do the trick anyway if you can’t find any others.
INGREDIENTS FOR STUFFED PEPPERS
For 4 persons
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 1h
Find our selection of ingredients
– 8 medium green peppers
– 700 g of minced meat (mixture of pork or beef)
– 2 large onions
– 70g long grain rice
– 2 tablespoons of oil
– 1 teaspoon of salt, pepper, dried thyme, possibly a little chopped green dill and a few sprigs of parsley
– 2 teaspoons of paprika (boia)
– 4 fleshy tomatoes, boiled and peeled or 500 ml of tomato purée
– 1 stalk of celery (optional)
– 1 teaspoon of sugar
- 2 tablespoons of oil for frying the peppers (optional)- fresh bread and cream
PREPARATION FOR THE STUFFED PEPPERS RECIPE :
Wash the peppers and cut a lid near the tails. I carefully removed the spine and shook out the seeds. Tried to clean the inside of the veins (they can be stinging). I completely removed the tails, leaving little circular lids.
Clean the onions and chop finely. Then fry them for 2-3 minutes in 2 tablespoons of oil (with a pinch of salt), until they become translucent. Then add the rice (dry) and sauté for 2 minutes, then remove and allow the mixture to cool.
In a large bowl put the minced meat, and season with salt, pepper, thyme, dill and chopped parsley and 2 good teaspoons of paprika (boia de paprika sweet). On top, add the mixture of onions browned with the rice and knead with your hands.
Wash the tomatoes and cut them lightly with a knife. Boil water in a small saucepan and soak each tomato for 10 seconds. Take out the scalded tomatoes and put them in a dish. After 2-3 minutes you can easily peel them. Put the peeled tomatoes in a blender (or food processor) and turn them into a puree.
You can also use tomato puree to replace this step.
Divide the stuffing into 8 (I have 8 peppers). Stuff the peppers well. It is good that they are not full to the brim because the rice will swell during cooking and may cause the stuffing to overflow.
And now I have chosen a large saucepan, big enough to hold all the peppers. Put 2 tablespoons of oil in the bottom and heat. Then grill all the peppers (thus stuffed) for a few seconds, turning them on all sides, taking care not to burn them. This gives them a grilled color on the outside and a special aroma! Roasted peppers seem much tastier to me than those boiled in water. Take them out of the saucepan and set them aside.
Now put the peppers in a large pot, next to each other, standing up, cover them with the “caps” and cover with tomato puree. I also added a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of sugar (to correct the acidity of the tomatoes). You can put a stalk of celery leaf (it’s optional but recommended). Top up the liquid with 2 cups of water (about 500ml) and bring to a boil, over medium heat, with the lid half open. From the time the preparation begins to boil to a boil, I timed 50 minutes (enough time to cook the meat and rice in the filling).
We will serve the peppers very hot with a little cream on top.
Enjoy your food! or Pofta Buna !
Tips to consider – The origin of the peppers is important to find the taste. Don’t hesitate to ask us for our vegetable arrivals! – Grilling the peppers before cooking gives them a very nice little taste ?
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