Stuffed Peppers

I found this recipe here - a new favourite blog of mine.  Maybe it's just the heritage that's close to home.  I've been meaning to make this for a while now but every time I pull out the ingredients and re-read the recipe I end up too strapped for time - it's a bit time consuming if you do it all from scratch, but very worth it.  And since fall seems to be upon us here in Saskatchewan, and I'm on a week of holidays, a nice hot casserole type meal was just the thing for yesterday's supper!  It is very similar to a cabbage roll, the same filling just stuffed in a pepper instead - and way easier than fooling around with cabbage leaves!  I served it with creamy mashed potatoes and steamed carrots with a honey ginger glaze!

Ingredients:1 lb lean ground beef  (I used ground bison, and I'm thinking you could also do it with ground chicken or turkey)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 grated onion

1/2 cup sour cream (I used light sour cream and it didn't seem to have an adverse affect)

1 cup cooked rice (1/3 cup raw)

5 large peppers, cut in half or 10 small 

I also added a clove of minced garlic.  After tasting I also decided that hot pepper flakes should be added the next time I make this.

Sauce:1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 pepper, chopped (I just used the left over tops and bottoms I cut to make the pepper sit flat)
5 Tbsp flour
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 small can tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste  

And if you're short on time or just don't care to go to the extra work of making a sauce of scratch a can of tomato soup would work just fine.  I made the sauce from scratch (I usually do) and it was worth it - nice fresh flavours!

Method:
1. If you do not have leftover rice, cook about 1/3 cup rice in 2/3 cup water and a bit of salt, until done.
2. Spray medium sized roaster with cooking spray.
3. Prepare peppers. If peppers are large, simply cut in half and remove stems and seeds. Shave off the pointed/top part so that they sit better. If using small peppers, cut the pointed section off, remove seeds and stem. Arrange in roaster, flat sides down.
4. In a large bowl, mix ground beef, seasoning, onion, sour cream and cooked rice. This works best by hand.
5. Fill Peppers.
6. In large skillet, cook chopped onion and pepper until soft.
7. Add half of the broth. Mix flour and the rest of the broth in a sealed jar and add to sauce.
8. Stir in tomato paste, salt and pepper to taste. Stir sauce until it comes to a boil and thickens.
9. Pour over filled peppers and bake at 350F for 75 -90 minutes.