Holiday stuffed bell peppers
Today, I am preparing my holiday ham and dressing and holiday stuffed bell peppers. These aren't your typical stuffed peppers. Instead of using ground beef and rice, I am using my ham dressing to stuff inside the prepared halved bell peppers. These are so festive to serve as a side dish on the holidays and they're truly very delicious.
Instructions:
6 bell peppers (red, green, yellow, and orange all look festive)
1 onion, finely diced
½ teaspoon of seasoning salt
2 cups of shredded cheese, use your preferred (I used a combination of shredded Swiss and mozzarella)
1-½ cups of holiday ham dressing, or boxed stuffing
1 ham steak, cooked and diced
Ingredients:
First, make your stuffing.
To make whole stuffed peppers, slice the tops off of the bell peppers, and remove the seeds and the white lining from the inside of each pepper.
To make more servings, slice each bell pepper lengthwise down through the center of each pepper. Leave the stems on if you desire, but pull out all the seeds and remove the white lining from each half.
Pre-bake the bell peppers for about fifteen minutes, or parboil the bell peppers in a pan of boiling water. Parboil them for three minutes. Remove the bell peppers carefully and place them on paper towels to drain.
If you are pre-baking the peppers whole, stand them upright on your baking tray. If you half the peppers, at this point, pre-bake them with the cut sides down for fifteen minutes.
Dice the ham steak in nice bite-sized chunks, cook in a skillet until browned (about six minutes). Transfer the cooked ham pieces to one and a half cups of your prepared stuffing. Set aside.
Lightly butter a baking pan; set aside.
Sprinkle cheese into the stuffing and ham mixture. Spoon the mixture into the precooked bell peppers. Transfer the stuffed holiday peppers to a baking pan. Bake for about fifteen to twenty minutes in a 350 degrees F oven. (The cheese should be fully melted and the stuffed holiday peppers should be tender.) Sprinkle the tops of each stuffed pepper with extra cheese if you desire.
Note:
If you prefer not to use stuffing, use Knorr rice sides, your preferred rice, or pasta instead.
Happy Holidays!!!