These stuffed peppers contain lean ground bison, meaty mushrooms and chewy farro to create a hearty, satisfying twist on a comfort food classic.
We didn’t grow up eating stuffed peppers but my Middle Eastern relatives have been stuffing vegetables for years. My all time favorite is Lebanese Stuffed Kusa Squash but I’m also a huge fan of Stuffed Eggplant with Beef and Pine Nuts, Stuffed Cabbage Rolls and Meat Stuffed Grape Leaves. (Are grape leaves a vegetable?)
Anyway, my husband recently requested stuffed peppers so I decided to create a meaty, protein-packed stuffing. We had ground bison on hand (my newest obsession), some leftover cooked farro and mushrooms. If you’ve never tried ground bison, it tastes just like ground beef (much more so than ground turkey) but it has fewer calories and less saturated fat and cholesterol per serving.
Farro is one of my husband’s favorite ancient grains and it’s packed with protein and fiber. It’s much more nutritionally dense than brown rice or white rice so I decided to use it in these peppers. Feel free to swap with anything from bulgur wheat to quinoa to white rice to spelt! The goal is to simply turn whatever you have on hand into a new and delicious dish your whole family will love.
Your fork is waiting.
Bison and Mushroom Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients:
- 4 red peppers halved & seeds and stem removed
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1 carrot diced
- 3 cloves garlic grated
- 20 ounces ground bison (or beef turkey, etc.)
- 2 cups sliced mushrooms
- 2 tablespoons dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon dried thyme
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 14 ounce can tomato sauce low sodium
- 1 cup cooked farro (or brown rice,bulgur, spelt, etc.)
- 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- fresh parsley minced - optional garnish
Instructions:
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and place red pepper halves in a large glass baking dish; set aside.
- Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat. Spray with cooking spray and add diced onion and carrot. Cook onion until softened, 3-4 minutes.
- Add grated garlic to the pan and heat 30 seconds before adding ground bison. Bump heat up to medium-high and brown the bison while breaking it down with a wooden spoon. While bison is browning, throw in the mushrooms and spices (oregano through chili flakes.)
- Once mushrooms have lost most of their moisture and bison is nicely browned and starting to form a crust (after about 10 minutes), stir in the tomato paste. Use wooden spoon to help incorporate paste into the meat mixture.
- Pour in the tomato sauce and cooked farro. Stir to combine and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes until mixture is warmed through. Check for seasoning and adjust accordingly before removing pan from the heat.
- Fill each pepper half with a heaping half cup of the bison and farro mixture. If there is leftover mixture simply add it to the pan around the peppers.
- Sprinkle a tablespoon of shredded parmesan on top of each stuffed pepper. Cover pan with foil and bake until peppers are soft, about 30-40 minutes.
- Optional: Once peppers are cooked, remove foil from the pan and broil peppers for 30-60 seconds to brown the cheese and form a bubbly crust on top.
- Garnish with freshly minced parsley to serve.
Lori @ Foxes Love Lemons
LOVE Bob’s Red Mill Farro. It’s such a nice change from brown rice/quinoa/brown rice again. And now I’m thinking I need to give ground bison a try. Hope I can find it at my store.
Liz DellaCroce
I am totally #TeamFarro!
Lorna R.
This sounds amazing! I have a pack of ground bison in my freezer though it may be passed its prime & freezer burnt. (Shame on me, i hate wasting anything!) Alas, i bet venison (in this case, white-tailed deer) meat would be scrumptious in this recipe as well! In our house we eat more venison than farmed meats which is very lean & loaded with fiber. I cant wait to give this recipe a whirl! Yum!
Liz DellaCroce
Venison would be great too! Let me know what you think!
Meredith
Over the top deliciousness!
Gaby
This looks so hearty and delicious!
Julia
Liz! You have inspired me to try Bison–I haven’t tried it before but I have a Costco membership. This looks awesome! :)
Liz DellaCroce
Oh I hope you try it! I know you’ll love it!
Sophia @ NY Foodgasm
Love how meaty and filling these look and damn I love stuffed peppers!
Jennie @themessybakerblog
Bison is a new obsession of ours, too. We recently traveled to our local bison farm and stocked up. The steak is amazing. I’ll be making a roast in the slow cooker this week. Love these peppers!
Liz DellaCroce
I’m jealous of your bison roast!!
Aggie
Love that you put farro in these peppers! These look fantastic! I’m obsessed with stuffed peppers yet haven’t made them in forever!
Liz DellaCroce
We are so farro obsessed lately!! It’s crazy!! I hope you like these – my boys devoured them!
Ashley | Spoonful of Flavor
Farro is a favorite of mine and these stuffed peppers look incredible!
Liz DellaCroce
Thank you so much Ashley!!
Christine from Cook the Story
Bison is such a wonderful protein. Great recipe!
Liz DellaCroce
I agree – I am so smitten with bison!
ashley - baker by nature
Holy YUM, Liz! This is our kind of dinner :)
Liz DellaCroce
Thanks Friend!! xo
Meagan @ A Zesty Bite
Oh man I could definitely eat one of these or maybe two.
Liz DellaCroce
I might have had three…woops!
Camille @ Challenge Mantra
I’m in love with this recipe but especially excited by the grape leaves recipe. I was just walking through whole foods the other day thinking what a shame it is that I couldn’t have grape leaves anymore and didn’t think to look up a paleo option! Thanks!
Liz DellaCroce
Grape leaves are the best!!! Let me know how you make yours!
Kathryn
We use ground bison/buffalo quite frequently too but I haven’t tried stuffing a pepper with it yet. This sounds so tasty + hearty!
Liz DellaCroce
I need to use it more often!! It’s my new favorite!!