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Cheesy Stuffed Peppers

I grew up eating stuffed peppers that were filled with Rice-A-Roni. Although I love that recipe, I’m taking it up a notch by making my own filling of ground beef and rice. Still simple, still delicious, and yes, still extra cheesy!

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Why it works: Pepper and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,913 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 6
Prep10 min
Cook45 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, soy, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Cut the tops off the green bell peppers, remove the seeds and membranes, and trim a thin slice from the bottoms so they stand upright. Parboil the peppers in a pan of boiling water for 4 minutes, then drain them.

  2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef and diced yellow onion and cook, breaking up the meat, for about 8 minutes until no pink remains and the meat reaches 160°F (71°C). Drain the fat and season with one pinch of salt.

  3. Dissolve the beef bouillon cube in the warm water. Add it to the skillet with the diced tomatoes, uncooked white rice, Worcestershire sauce and the other pinch of salt. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 12 minutes until the rice is nearly tender.

  4. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the 1 cup shredded cheddar and about half of the condensed tomato soup until smooth. Spoon the filling into the parboiled peppers, packing it in firmly.

  5. Stand the stuffed peppers upright in a baking dish. Spoon the remaining condensed tomato soup over the peppers, adding a splash of water to thin it if needed. Cover the dish tightly with foil.

  6. Bake covered for 25 minutes until the peppers begin to soften. Remove the foil, sprinkle the topping cheddar over the peppers, and bake uncovered for about 8 minutes until the cheese melts and the peppers are tender. Serve hot.

By tastykitchen. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Pepper + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together17,913 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Beef + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Tomato + ricetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,990 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Pepper + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, beef, tomato, rice, sauce, cheddar cheese):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Carrotabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, beef, tomato, rice, sauce, cheddar cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).