Base Soup or Sauce 4: Stuffed Pepper w/ Ranchero Sauce

the pepper with its garden friends, see it?

I love peppers, especially I love their versatility. You can enjoy them raw, or fried, stewed, pickled, roasted, stuffed, baked... I am sure there are others manner of which you can prepare this awesome vegetable, but this post will focus on the latter of the list- stuffing and baking. FYI, in case you love all peppers and will seek recipes here for a specific type: my stomach doesn't tolerate green bell peppers well, so I tend to avoid them. Therefore, it's highly unlikely you'll find a recipe within that calls for them. Red, yellow, purple, spicy or mild, jalapenos, habaneros, and so on are fine. For no good reason, what troubles my stomach most are the standard, green bell pepper- regardless of how it's prepared- my Dad has the same ailment so maybe it's hereditary? Anyway...

Tonight, I am thinking of what can I do with the remaining 2 (possibly a little more) servings of the Base Tomato Soup or Sauce I made several days ago. As I left work one day, a colleague gave me an habanero pepper from his garden. I was thrilled! I am only growing Giant Marconi sweets and jalapenos. So, the habanero was welcomed. I had a Giant Marconi that was turning its brilliant red and I knew I'd have to do something with it soon. I think stuffing it was the best solution. Tell me you don't look at that pepper and hear it scream- stuff me! Go on, tell me. Yep, didn't think so. 

As I stood and pondered the vegetables, plus Base Soup and Sauce I had in front of me, I thought of Don Pablos, the restaurant where I worked during college (or what was supposed to be college years...)with many friends, including cocktail waitress extraordinaire- Melissa Basilone. I remembered days when "PaPa" the resident lead cook and coincidentally (?) Mexican patriarch would say, "Estephenie, I made for you especial no meat "insert name" (dish), you'll like it!! es Muy bien!" Queso Stuffed peppers with Ranchero Sauce was definitely one of my favorites. Here's my go at something probably not nearly authentic enough, but still really, really Muy Bien.

Ingredients:

• ½ Habanero Peppers, seeded and chopped
• 1 serving (1- 1 ¼ C) Base Tomato Soup or Sauce
• ¼ C dry TVP
• 2 T cooked kidney beans (left over from another meal, fine to omit)
• 1 large Sweet pepper (oblong is nice, but bell shaped is fine, too)
• ¼ C chopped carrots
• ¼ C chopped onions
• 1 tsp mince garlic
• 1 tsp ground oregano
• 1 T Cilantro
• 1 C Water
• ½ ounce Goat chevre 
• ¼ C dry rice 
• 2 T saffron flowers
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder

Make It:
Pepper -
Slit the pepper from the stem to the base, only on one side, so that you can seed and core it without breaking it entirely in half. Place it in a shallow, oven proof dish. Add a thin layer of water to the dish. Set aside.

Ranchero Sauce -
In a small sauce pot, mix together 1 C base Tomato Soup or Sauce plus, oregano, garlic, and chopped habanero. Cook on low-med heat. Leave it cooking while the other items are prepared.

Pepper Stuffing -
In a small frying pan, mix dry TVP with 1/4 cup water and 2 T Tomato Soup or Sauce, plus cilantro, cumin and chili powder. Heat to simmer. Add onions and carrots, plus 2 T of kidney beans. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Rice -
Bring to a boil together, 1/4 C dry rice, plus ¾ C water, 2 T Saffron flowers, 1/2 tsp white pepper, 2 T base soup/sauce recipe
Once boiling, reduce to simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes. While not traditional Mexican rice, it's still very yellow and Mexican-like flavored.

Pepper -
Fill the pepper with the Pepper Stuffing. Cover with foil and bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes. (I used the toaster over again, since it seems a waste to heat the whole giant oven!) Remove from the oven and top with the goat chevre. Bake, uncovered, for 5 minutes more to melt and roast the cheese a little.

Serve the Stuffed Pepper with the rice and smother everything in the yummy, spicy Ranchero sauce and top with some more fresh cilantro!

Ok, so when you see the Nutritional info you will realize that this meal did not come in under 300 calories, in fact, it's almost 500! But, when you see the size of this meal, you'll realize there's no way I could have eaten it all. Since this dish came out bigger than expected for dinner, I had dinner tonight and lunch ready for tomorrow. Perfect! I didn't have lunch planned yet anyway. Still very nutritious and about 12 grams of protein as split in two. Yay!

Nutritional Info (as 1 serving, but I made it 2)

Servings Per Recipe: 1

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 486.2

Total Fat: 4.2 g

Cholesterol: 0.0 mg

Sodium: 193.0 mg

Total Carbs: 91.9 g

Dietary Fiber: 15.9 g

Protein: 23.3 g