Jasmine Stuffed Peppers

With even more jasmine rice in my pantry, I wanted to use it in a unique, Turkish-inspired way.

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Turkish Dolma (Stuffed Peppers)

by GK

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients (6 stuffed peppers)

  • 1 white onion, chopped
  • 1 hot green pepper, diced
  • 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 cup jasmine rice, uncooked
  • salt & pepper
  • 1/4 cup currants
  • 6 green bell peppers
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tomato, sliced
  • Extra veggies — hot green pepper, zucchini, tomato — for sauce (optional)

*Note: In the outline below, I only make 4 servings, but there was enough rice to make 6.

Instructions

Begin by chopping the onion. Slice the hot green pepper length-wise and remove the seeds and inside skin and then dice it.

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Sautee the onions and pepper with olive oil in a medium-sized saucepan on medium-high heat until the onion softens a bit – about 2 minutes.

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Add the jasmine rice and stir for approximately one minute.

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Once the onions have become transparent, put in the currants, salt, and pepper.

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Give the mixture a good stir and then add 3 cups water.

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Cover the pot and let simmer until the rice has absorbed all the water; however, the rice won’t seem completely finished, since it’ll go through some more cooking later when stuffed into the peppers.

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Speaking of peppers, it’s time to prep them.

Simply cut off the top of the bell pepper, about 1 inch from the top in order to preserve the cap. remove the seeds and “flesh” inside each pepper.

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Now stuff ‘em until full, but not burgeoning.

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In a small pot (that is small enough to hug the peppers so that they are able to stand up straight when places side-by-side), add about 2 cups of water and 2 tbsp of tomato paste and stir together on medium-low heat. When you put the peppers into the pot, you don’t want the water to exceed going 3/4 up the height of the pepper.

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Since my peppers tend to fall over when I try to place them upright in the pot, I like to add other things to the mix to help them hold their balance. In addition to pouring in the leftover rice, I also like to add hot peppers, tomatoes, and sometimes zucchini, depending on how much space I need to fill.

Atop each, upright-standing stuffed pepper, place a tomato slice.

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Cap each one off…

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Cover and let simmer on low or medium-low for approximately 30 minutes, keeping pace with the tenderness of the pepper.

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The house is going to smell pretty unbelievable. And then this happens:

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Serve with the sauce and other vegetables that were thrown in there. Garnish with parsley or mint. Generally, this dish is served cold, but I don’t really have the delayed appetite for that.

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Enjoy!

xo Aylin