Spicy Egg Topped Stuffed Bell Peppers

Dinner Made Easy

“Lee had kept Adam’s eggs warm and had fried two for Cal. Aron walked through the dining room on his way to school. Want me to wait for you?”

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

Inspiration

All the sweet flavors of multi-colored bells mingle with your favorite salsa for a spicy update to the classic recipe in Spicy Egg Topped Stuffed Bell Peppers. The rice stuffing cooks inside the peppers that are nestled in a tomato based sauce. Topping these Spicy Stuffed Bell Peppers with an egg adds a boost of protein which could be dinner, lunch or brunch. The Spicy Egg Topped Stuffed Bell Peppers can be served with chips and salsa but warmed tortillas would be wonderful too. Temper the spiciness of the recipe by varying the type of salsa and amount of red pepper flakes.

Essentials

One of the memorable events of the 2016 International Food Bloggers Conference was the Taste of Sacramento Culinary Fair Expo and Gift Suite. We were welcomed to Sacramento with a scrumptiously curated sample of the cities best restaurants and businesses. As we scooped into creamy cheesecake samples from Davidson’s Safest Choice Eggs we learned about the why and how of pasteurizing eggs. The why is all about food safety and raw eggs. This link explains how pasteurization removes the possibility of Salmonella bacteria, a food borne illness, in raw eggs. The process of pasteurizing the eggs is explained here. I used Davidson’s Safest Choice,Cage Free Eggs in this recipe and didn’t find any difference in taste or performance from other eggs I have used.

This is an easy recipe for stuffed bell peppers that does away the time consuming pre-cooking of the rice in one pan and then mixing the rice and filling in another bowl. Only one pan is needed for this in this easy recipe for Spicy Egg Topped Stuffed Bell Peppers. The rice cooks with the peppers and their sauce. Pop the pan in the oven for an hour and fifteen minutes, then top the peppers with an egg, cheese and green onions, cook briefly and your meal is ready. This recipe makes six servings, or one stuffed pepper per person. The recipe is scaled for a standard package of six multi-colored bell peppers, weighing two pounds.

	Sauce
1-28oz can	crushed or diced tomatoes
1C	chicken or vegetable broth or stock
2/3C	favorite salsa
1t	fine grain sea salt
1/4t-1/2t	red pepper flakes (optional)
	Stuffed Bell Peppers
6 medium/2lbs	multi-colored bell peppers
1/2C	white rice, uncooked
1/2t	fine grain sea salt
2	green onions, thinly sliced
2/3C	favorite salsa
6	eggs
4oz	pepper jack cheese, grated
6 sprigs	cilantro, for serving (optional)

1. Heat the oven to 350°. Lightly grease an oven proof pan that will accommodate six bell peppers nestled in their cooking sauce. The pan will need a lid or to be covered in foil. I used a 5.5 quart enameled covered steel pan.
2. In the prepared pan add the tomatoes, broth, salsa, salt and red pepper flakes, stir to combine.
3. Cut ½ inch off the tops of the bell peppers and remove the seeds and membranes. Arrange the bell peppers, cut side up, in the pan with the sauce. Divide the rice between the bell peppers, a rounded tablespoon for each pepper. Sprinkle the salt and one of the sliced green onions evenly among the six peppers. Add two tablespoons of salsa and a tablespoon of water to each pepper. All the rice should be covered with liquid, if not add more water a teaspoon at a time until the rice is just covered in liquid. Put the tops back on the peppers. Once all the peppers are filled the sauce level in the pan should reach half way up the sides of the peppers. Cover the pan with the lid or tightly with foil. Bake in the heated oven for one hour and fifteen minutes.
4. Remove the pan from the oven, leaving the oven on. Carefully remove the lid or foil from the pan and the pepper tops, watch out for hot steam. (There should a half an inch of space left in the top of peppers for adding an egg. If the peppers were small, some rice stuffing may need to be removed before adding the egg. Any extra rice can be served with the peppers or stirred into the sauce.) Add one egg to each pepper by cracking one egg at a time into a small bowl and pouring it into each bell pepper. Top the eggs with half the cheese and half of the remaining sliced green onion. Return the uncovered pan to the oven to bake the eggs. Bake the eggs for 8-12 minutes, depending on how you like to cook your eggs. For eggs with a runny yolk, remove the pan from the oven when the egg whites become opaque and the yolks are still bright yellow and shiny. For firmer eggs cook until the yolk turns pale yellow and is no longer glossy. Serve the stuffed peppers while hot with a generous spoonful of sauce and the remaining cheese and green onions. Garnish with cilantro, if desired.

Davidson’s Safest Choice Eggs has challenged bloggers who attended either IFBC, Eat Write Blog or Blog Brulee to develop a recipe using their eggs as an ingredient. This post is my entry in the Blogger Recipe Contest. Additionally, bloggers who attended IFBC were offered a discounted conference rate in exchange for blogging about the event. All opinions, photography and the recipe are my own.