Stuffed Banana Peppers Recipe

Craving something really good? Try these Czech-style stuffed sweet banana peppers with bread dumplings and sweet tomato sauce. It is a very tasty but easy recipe perfect for summer when there are a lot of peppers available both from your own garden and the farmers' market.

➜ What is this stuffed peppers recipe?

These are banana pepper pods stuffed with seasoned raw ground pork, beef, and cooked rice. Once filled, they are roasted in the oven until their surface turns lightly golden. Whilst the peppers are baking, it’s time to make a simple yet delicious tomato sauce that serves as an excellent accompaniment to the meal.

Fun fact: The recipe originally comes from the Czech Republic, where it is called "plněné papriky". Literally translated, that means stuffed peppers!

MY TIP: Try Haluski, fried cabbage and noodles (a dish that tastes fantastic!)

➜ What exactly are banana peppers?

Banana pepper is a medium-sized mild pepper with a spicy, somewhat sweet but not hot flavor. Yellow wax peppers or banana chilies are other names for them. Wondering what to do with banana peppers? They're ubiquitous on pizza, in summer salads, sandwiches, or stuffed with a meaty mixture or cheese.

➜ Ingredients

For ground pork and beef with rice stuffed peppers, you will need:

• Fresh banana peppers; bright yellow summer peppers, these are the large straight-shaped ones with thin skin and sweet flesh, not hot
• Yellow onion
• Garlic; freshly crushed or minced garlic cloves add excellent flavor
• Ground pork and beef; both types of meat are used to stuff the peppers, beef alone would be too dry
• Eggs; hold the pepper stuffing together
• Salt
• Ground pepper
• Cooked rice; acts as a "sticky" agent. Be sure to cook the rice in advance; it is generally used cold in the stuffing. Use any rice you have available; however, go for starchy sticky rice if you can.
• Dry bread crumbs; they will bind the stuffing better, making it denser
• Hot water; for pouring when roasting the peppers; optionally broth for more taste
• Lard or butter; to grease the baking sheet

✅ You’ll find the exact amount of ingredients below in the recipe card, which you can also print out.

➜ Instructions with photos

STEP 1: Make the stuffing: Cook the rice and let it cool completely. Peel and finely chop the onion. Crush the peeled garlic. Put both types of minced meat, eggs, and breadcrumb in a large mixing bowl. Add the cooled rice, garlic, salt, and pepper. Using your hand, quickly and thoroughly work all ingredients into a meat mixture.

STEP 2: Wash the peppers, cut off the top with the stem and scrape out the seeds from inside the pods.

STEP 3: Fill the prepared pepper pods with the mixture. This is best done with a long-handled spoon. Press the stuffing slightly.

TIP: If you have leftover meat stuffing and you don't have peppers anymore, make it into a roll and bake it with the peppers in a baking dish.

STEP 4: Grease a baking dish with a tablespoon of lard and put the filled pepper pods in it. Pour a cup of water over them.

STEP 5: Roast the peppers in a preheated oven at 356°F/180 °C (lower and upper heating) for about 50 minutes. During this time, the tops of the banana peppers turn slightly golden. Pour a cup of water or stock over the peppers; baste the peppers with the stock about twice during cooking.

TIP: While the peppers are roasting, make this tomato sauce.

Quick fix: If you don't want to make extra tomato sauce from scratch, use any ready-made sweet tomato sauce for pasta, e. g., marinara sauce.

➜ Side dishes

The best accompaniment to stuffed peppers is Czech bread dumplings or steamed rice.

Serve by arranging the side dish to the edge of a plate, then pour in the tomato sauce and sit roasted stuffed pepper in it.

➜ Storage

• In the fridge: Let the stuffed peppers cool completely and store them in the refrigerator, where they will keep for up to five days.
• Freeze: Stuffed peppers are a freezer-friendly meal. Let them cool completely, then place them in a plastic bag in the freezer for 20 minutes. Then transfer them to an airtight container and return them to the freezer, where they will keep for up to five months. This way the peppers will freeze separately, they won't stick together.
• Reheat: Heat the stuffed peppers up covered in a microwave or defrost them in the oven.

More tasty recipes:

• Red pepper cheese spread
• Hungarian Lecho
• Pickled sausages (Czech Utopenci)
• Creamed green beans