When your sweet pepper crop is in full swing the only thing to do is make, you guessed it, stuffed peppers.

Growing up, stuffed peppers were always in my mothers dinner rotation, especially in the Fall. They weren’t my favorite as a kid but as an adult I do occasionally like to make them for myself and family. I gave my family’s recipe a bit of a facelift by using my favorite game meat, ground venison, and plenty of my homegrown seasonal produce. By making these few adjustments, I turned a normal weeknight dinner recipe into something really special. 

Venison Stuffed Peppers

6 medium sized sweet bell peppers

16 oz ground venison

1 cup cooked white rice

1 TBSP tomato paste

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp ground mustard

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp dried minced onion

2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp black pepper

1 can tomato puree 

Pecorino Romano cheese to taste

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the venison, rice, tomato paste and all the spices. Fold the mixture together until the rice and spices are fully incorporated with the meat, put aside until you prep the peppers.

Clean your peppers by cutting the tops off the peppers and scooping out any seeds. You can also trim the bottoms off the peppers to make a flat surface. Only do this if the peppers don’t seem to sit up straight but  make sure not to trim too much of the pepper off so there’s a hole.

Once your meat and peppers are prepped, place about half the can of tomato puree in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Just enough to cover the bottom of the dish. 

Fill each pepper with the meat and rice mixture, pack it in until the filling is level with the top of the pepper. Place the stuffed peppers into your prepared baking dish and top with the remaining tomato puree making sure each pepper gets topped. 

Top your baking dish with aluminum foil and bake your peppers for about an hour. After the hour test for doneness by pricking a pepper with a sharp knife. If the knife can easily prick the pepper then they are done. If your peppers still seem a little too firm, cook them for an additional 30 minutes. You want to make sure the peppers are tender but not completely falling apart. 

Once done, serve the peppers by topping with additional puree from the bottom of the baking dish and top with Pecorino Romano cheese if desired.

Sit back and enjoy!

*Notes: 

This recipe is a wonderful meal prep idea. You can easily make a batch of stuffed peppers, cool them and store them in the fridge for about a week. They reheat like a dream and are perfect to have on hand if you’re pressed for time. 

Now I use venison for my stuffed peppers because I personally like the taste of lean game meat. But if deer meat isn’t your thing you can easily substitute it with ground beef or even turkey. 

For this recipe, it’s best if you use leftover rice that may be a little bit dried out. When the rice is a day old it absorbs the liquid that gets cooked out of the pepper instead of adding more moisture to an already moist environment. I’ve tried it with both fresh and day-old rice, using fresh rice makes the peppers taste too waterdown as well as making the pepper filling too sloppy.