We’re nearing sweater weather, which means we’re nearing stuffed-pepper weather.
I have a soft spot for stuffed peppers, because they were in my mother’s weekly dinner rotation: Hers were green bells, as was the fashion in the 1970s, and stuffed with beef and rice, covered in tomato sauce and baked. I liked them, but I always wondered why those green peppers had such a bitter taste – and, I confess, I often scooped out the filling and ate it with the sauce, leaving the peppers untouched.
That was a few decades before I learned why I like the red (or orange or yellow) peppers so much more than green: They’re ripe.
I haven’t made the submerged-in-sauce version of stuffed peppers in many years. Instead, I tend to roast the peppers relatively unadorned, at least on the outside. For the inside, I’m always looking for a new stuffing, preferably with a good dose of protein. In Jean-Christian Jury’s recent tome, “Vegan: The Cookbook,” I spotted a treatment that stuffs the peppers with a quick batch of red lentils cooked with chiles and some of my other favorite ingredients: fresh ginger, cumin, coriander and cilantro leaves. Served over rice, they’re a healthful, hearty fall-into-winter dish that I can also imagine serving at room temperature in warmer weather.
There’s just one thing I changed from his recipe, and I bet you can guess: I turned those peppers red.