Ardei Umpluți — Print Recipe — The Culinary Codex

Tender bell peppers filled with a savory mixture of ground beef, rice, and herbs, simmered in a tomato sauce until meltingly soft.

Ingredients

1 Sauté onion in oil until translucent. Mix with ground beef, rice, paprika, dill, salt, and pepper.
2 Stuff each pepper with the meat mixture, filling about three-quarters full (rice expands).
3 Place stuffed peppers upright in a deep pot. Pour crushed tomatoes and passata around them.
4 Add enough water to come halfway up the peppers. Season the sauce with salt.
5 Cover and simmer gently for 1 hour until peppers are soft and rice is cooked through.
6 Serve with generous sour cream and fresh bread.

Did You Know?

Romanian grandmothers judge the quality of ardei umpluți by whether the rice has fully expanded and the pepper is soft enough to cut with a spoon.