Hungarian Stuffed Peppers
May’s Featured Guest Blogger (a.k.a. Jinky’s Husband)
I love to work in the kitchen. I can just putter around for hours chopping, cooking, and even cleaning all afternoon to create a meal from scratch. Even though it’s a completely “hands off” experience for Jinky, she still gets impatient and says I’m spending too much time making something. Usually, I just pour her a glass of wine and she goes to watch the Housewives (ugh!) or the Hallmark Channel (smh) in the bedroom… and then I go back to getting my cook on in peace. But, she does have a point—recipes you can “set and forget” make for an easy afternoon. Maybe that’s why my recipe for stuffed Hungarian peppers is one of her favorites. It takes minimal work and makes a filling Sunday dinner. I grew up in the cold winters of Western Pennsylvania and my paternal grandfather’s family was Hungarian, so this dish also offers me a cozy taste of home and brings back fond memories of the family hearth.
Regardless of where you call home, the two common ingredients in Hungarian cuisine remain the same—paprika and tomato sauce. In this recipe, we’ll take a “Jinky shortcut” and use canned tomato soup to put my spin on toltott paprika (Hungarian stuffed peppers).
Ingredients:
1/2 lb. hamburger (ground chuck, 20% or 22% fat
1/2 an onion, chopped
1/2 c. cooked rice
2 cloves of minced garlic
6 or so Hungarian wax peppers (a.k.a. yellow chilis)
1 can tomato soup (14.5 oz can). I prefer Amy’s Organic Soups Cream of Tomato, which is low in sodium.
A small can or jar of sauerkraut
Hungarian paprika
Salt and fresh ground pepper
Sour cream, for serving
Serving size: Good for 2.
Preparation
Wash the peppers, and chop off the tops just below the stems. Then, de-seed the peppers and scoop out the membrane with a teaspoon.
In a mixing bowl, spread out the hamburger along the bottom and season it with salt, pepper, paprika, and the minced garlic. Then, sprinkle on the chopped onions and rice. Knead it all together until everything is well mixed. If you prefer more spice, you can season for a second time with salt, pepper, and paprika and knead again.
Stuff the peppers with the hamburger mixture, pressing it into the hollow pepper shell firmly to make sure it gets all the way down into the bottom tip. The hamburger will cook down a little, so it’s a good idea to pack a little bit of a “mound” or “dome” over the cap of the pepper.
Preheat the oven to 350. In a roasting dish or a piece of Corningware bakeware, cover the bottom with a dram of the canned tomato soup. Then, place the stuffed peppers in the dish in a single layer. Leave some space between them, though. Pour the rest of the soup over the peppers. Using a fork, flake some of the sauerkraut—not a lot!—over the peppers. Then, grab a pepper mill and grind some fresh black pepper over everything. Just give it a few good cranks. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and place it in the oven. Let it roast for 1.5 to 2 hours.
When the peppers have roasted, spoon some of the sauce into the bottom of a shallow serving bowl and place the peppers in the sauce. Serve with a dollop of sour cream on top, if desired, and fresh toasted or grilled bread. If you don’t finish it all, the leftovers reheat very well.
