Swedish Chef's Stuffed Peppers

I can still remember as a child, coming home from school and opening the front door.  The whole house was filled with the smell of mom's stuffed peppers.  Of course, back then I didn't like the peppers, but she always had enough left-over meat filling and she would make meatballs for me, and cook them with the peppers.  I don't think mom had a specific recipe for these, but this is my adaptation of that memory.

Ingredients:

1½ lbs. meat loaf mix (beef, pork, veal)
½ c. yellow onion, diced
½ c. rice
1 c. water
1 egg
salt and pepper
2 T. Worcestershire sauce
dash of allspice
1 can tomato soup
½ c. ketchup
3 large green, red, orange, or yellow bell peppers


In a small saucepan, add rice and water.  Bring to a boil.  Once most of the water is absorbed, remove from heat and cover with a lid.  Allow to cool slightly.

Rinse peppers and cut in half.  Remove seeds and any of the white membrane inside.  Sprinkle each half with a pinch of salt (this helps to remove the bitterness of the pepper).

In a mixing bowl, combine meat, onion, salt and pepper, rice, egg, Worcestershire sauce and allspice.  Mix thoroughly until combined. 

Stuff each pepper half, making sure the meat is packed in tightly. 

In a separate bowl, combine tomato soup and ketchup; mix to combine.  Spoon half of the mixture over the top of the peppers.

Preheat oven to 375º and cover peppers with foil.  Place in the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes.

Remove from oven, remove foil, and add remaining sauce over peppers.

Return peppers to the oven and back for an additional 15 minutes or until the meat juices run clear.

I like to serve these with baked potatoes.