Bulgarian Stuffed Peppers (2024)

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Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Bulgarian

Servings: 8 Peppers

Author: The Modern Nonna

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour

Total Time: 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

The Peppers

• ▢ 8 medium bell peppers, (900 grams total)
• ▢ 2 tablespoons avocado oil , or any you like
• ▢ 1 finely onion, diced
• ▢ 1 peeled carrot , grated
• ▢ 2 cloves garlic , minced
• ▢ 1 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1 teaspoon paprika
• ▢ 1 teaspoon dry oregano
• ▢ 1 cup rice (any of choice) , (200 grams), rinsed
• ▢ ⅓ cup tomato sauce , (80ml)
• ▢ 2 tabelspoons water
• ▢ 400 grams ground pork, or any ground meat

The White Sauce

• ▢ 2 egg yolks
• ▢ 1.5 cups plain yogurt , (350 grams)
• ▢ pinch of salt, to taste
• ▢ 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• ▢ ½ cup of the liquid in the baking dish after the peppers have baked

Additional Ingredients

• ▢ pinch of salt , on top of the peppers before baking
• ▢ pinch of salt, on top of the ground meat after adding it in the pan to the rice
• ▢ 1 tablespoon olive oil , on peppers before baking them
• ▢ chopped parsley , for garnish

• NOTE: Please stir in between each ingredient when you add it into the pan as you cook. Please practice “mise en place” which means you prep/chop all of your ingredients before you start. I want you to be ready so that you don’t scramble for ingredients or get flustered.

Stuffing the Peppers

• Preheat the oven to 425F.

• Wash all the peppers, cut the tops and discard all of the seeds with a spoon. Make sure you save the tops and place them to the corresponding pepper so they can bake together later.

• In a large pan on the stove add the oil. Let it heat up on medium heat and sauté the onions and grated carrot. Add in the garlic and make sure you stir in between when adding each ingredient.

• Add the salt, paprika, and dry oregano (stir). Add in the washed rice (stir). Add the plain tomato sauce, (stir again). Add two tablespoons of water and incorporate into the rice and veggies.

• Take the pan off the heat completely or turn off the stove.

• Add in the raw minced meat and sprinkle a pinch or two of salt on top of the meat (to taste) and mix it really well. Make sure the meat is mixed with the rice and veggies fully.

• Take a spoon and stuff each pepper to the top with the meat and rice mixture. Proceed until the peppers are all stuffed and the filling is all finished. If you have any extra filling left over make sure you have an extra pepper on hand to stuff or look at my notes below.

• You can also use the extra filling in the fridge to stuff tomatoes/zucchini or so many other veggies too!

• Arrange the stuffed peppers into a baking dish making sure you put the tops onto each one. The peppers should be really snug so please use a baking dish that's not overly big.

• We make sure the opening of the peppers are facing each other with the tops on so that the mixture doesn't spill out. Be sure to use a dish that will fit all the peppers so that they are nice and snug. My baking dish is 8 by 13 inches but any dish will work.

• We add a pinch of salt on top of the peppers and a drizzle of oil onto each one.

• Pour 2.5 cups of water into baking dish and bake uncovered at 425F for 45-60 minutes depending on the oven and depending on the baking dish as well (some take longer based on the material).

• You will know when the peppers are done as they will have a beautiful char on top and will be super soft when you touch the skin.

• Remove the peppers out of the oven and carefully (with oven mitts on) tilt the baking dish pouring out any of the remaining liquid into a bowl. If you're not making the white sauce you can definitely skip this step and enjoy the peppers as is! We got about 1/2 cup of liquid total out of the baking dish.

Making the Sauce

• In a separate bowl, add two egg yolks, plain yogurt and a big pinch of salt (salt to taste). Mix it really well and whisk in the flour.

• Take the baked pepper water that was poured out of the baking dish and slowly pour it into the sauce as you whisk. This step is called tempering as we are bringing the eggs up to temperature.

• Pour this sauce over the peppers and put the dish back into the oven for another 5 minutes.

• Take the peppers out of the oven, garnish with parsley and enjoy! The sauce is incredible when dipped with fresh bread.

Depending on the size of the peppers you may need to add more water. Ours were small so we added 2.5 cups which was half way. The water is needed so that the meat an rice can cook on the inside.

Depending on how big or small the peppers are, you may have some extra filling left over. IF you have extra filling you can core a few tomatoes, save the tops, stuff them, and bake separately with the tops on. We bake them uncovered with a splash of water in the dish (100ml) for about 45 minutes.

This recipe is a staple on Christmas Eve in Bulgaria but we make it only with rice as we don’t eat meat on December 24th.

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Bulgarian