Stuffed Pepper Dip

The comforting and familiar flavours of stuffed peppers have been deconstructed in this Stuffed Pepper Dip.  Hearty, cheesy, and beefy – a dip that eats like a meal!

Everyone loves stuffed peppers, at least everyone who grew up in the 70s and 80s!  Everyone, that is, except me!  Would you believe me if I told you that my mother never once made a stuffed pepper dish?  Not one single time!

She had a very valid reason for that, of course.  You see, Dear Reader, where I grew up, bell peppers – red, green, or otherwise – were not something that was easy to get.  Small out-port towns in Newfoundland was not the place to look for fresh produce; at least any produce outside of a common root vegetable.

When I was twelve, my parents left Newfoundland and moved to a much larger town in Ontario, called Stayner.  Now, at the time, the population of Stayner was 3500 people.  To me, Stayner was a metropolis; after all, my hometown of Middle Arm in Newfoundland, had a population of roughly 500 people.

I still remember that first six months or so in Ontario when I felt like I was living in an alternate universe.  I was introduced to things that I had only known to exist on television.  Ordering pizza for delivery to your home?  I had never heard of it!  I remember tasting celery for the first time at the age of 12; red and green peppers too, not to mention corn that didn’t come in a can!

The first year of my life in Ontario was full of change and new experiences.  There was a grocery store right across the street from the townhouse my parents decided to rent.  I remember coming home from school and walking over to the grocery store with 35 cents in my pocket to get a cold pop from the pop machine outside the store.

Before dropping my coins into that pop machine, I would walk up and down the many aisles inside the grocery store in complete awe of the many foods in there.  I was fascinated with the deli counter!  I had grown up with only sliced ham in terms of deli selections.  That was it!  Sandwiches were made from that or canned chicken or tuna.

I remember walking through the produce section and looking at the fresh mushrooms and marvelling at how they looked in fresh form.  I had only seen mushrooms from a can.  There were potatoes with red skin.  There were red onions.  And this thing called radicchio!

One day, during one of my after-school-grocery-store-excursions, I must have spent an hour closely examining the leaves and stems of the fresh herbs section.  I was completely astonished by fresh dill.  Dill had always been one of my favourite flavours, but I had no idea how pretty and flow-y bunches of fresh dill looked!  I won’t even get started on Brussels sprouts!  I thought they were cabbages that didn’t get enough sunlight!

Now that I’m thinking about it, those days must have been my first introduction to food fascination.  It’s a shame, really, that such common ingredients weren’t readily available to my mom when she learned to cook for her family.  She was a great cook, so I can just imagine what she could have created had her cooking skills not been capped by lack of ingredients.

When it comes to the classic stuffed peppers, I feel as though I have not missed out.  This Stuffed Pepper Dip makes up for any stuffed pepper dish I may have missed those many years ago.  And were it not for that small, out-port fishing village, I may not be so interested in food, and therefore, Lord Byron’s Kitchen might not exist.

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Stuffed Pepper Dip

The comforting and familiar flavours of stuffed peppers have been deconstructed in this Stuffed Pepper Dip. Hearty, cheesy, and beefy – a dip that eats like a meal!

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 45 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Servings 12 people

Calories 231kcal

Author Lord Byron's Kitchen

Ingredients

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 large onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 whole green bell pepper, finely diced
• 1 whole red bell pepper, finely diced
• 4 ounces canned diced green chilies
• 14 ounces canned fire roasted tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1/4 cup parsley, chopped, for garnish, optional

Instructions

• In a large skillet, over medium heat, cook the ground beef with the onions and olive oil until the ground beef is no longer pink - about 15 minutes.
• Add the garlic, and the green and red bell peppers.  Stir into the beef and onions and cook for 5 minutes.
• Add the fire roasted tomatoes, diced green chilies, chili powder, cumin, salt, and ground black pepper.  Stir to combine.
• Turn off the heat and allow the mixture to cool for 20 minutes.  While you are waiting, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
• Once the mixture has cooled, ,stir in three cups of the shredded cheese.
• Transfer the mixture to a casserole dish and top with the remaining one cup of cheese.
• Bake for 30 minutes.  Serve with corn chips.  

Nutrition

Calories: 231kcal | Carbohydrates: 4g | Protein: 18g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 62mg | Sodium: 414mg | Potassium: 220mg | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 725IU | Vitamin C: 4.3mg | Calcium: 296mg | Iron: 1.7mg

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