Organic Barley Stuffed Peppers (Rice-free)

My daughter has a rice allergy. Thankfully, my husband and I are not huge rice eaters so it hasn't been a big deal to give up rice. There are a few dishes where you just need rice, though, and it sometimes makes me sad we can't eat those, such as stuffed peppers.

We have successfully food challenged barley, which is a good substitute for rice.

It dawned on me one day that I could substitute the rice in stuffed peppers for the barley! Brilliant! So I came up with the recipe below. Remember, you do need to have cooked barley on-hand. Barley can take a little while to cook so plan ahead.



Organic Barley Stuffed Peppers:
Ingredients:
3 organic whole green peppers
3/4 cup cooked organic pearled barley
1/2 can (14.5 ounce can) organic tomato sauce
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/2 large yellow onion, grated
1/2 pound grass fed ground beef
salt
pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a pot large enough to fit the three peppers, bring water to a boil.
3. Wash your peppers, and cut off the tops, deseed them, and devein them.
4. In a large skillet, brown your ground beef with your grated onions.
5. When your water has come to a boil, cook the peppers for 3-5 minutes.
6. Drain the peppers on a kitchen towel and set aside.
8. In the large skillet with the beef and onions, add the cooked barley, tomato sauce, cheese, salt, and pepper. Mix well.
9. Grease a loaf pan (or any other pan the peppers will stand up in).
10. Stand peppers in greased pan and then gently fill them with the mixture. Sprinkle a little bit of the grated cheese on top.
11. Bake for about 25 minutes. Serve hot.

1 comment:

DandW said...

I subsitute couscous and it works well, too.