Paleo Stuffed Peppers

My old stuffed pepper recipe called for rice in the stuffing, so I have not been able to make it for months.  Finding the Paleo Cabbage Rolls on They've Gone Paleo ( http://theyvegonepaleo.blogspot.com/2012/03/cabbage-rolls.html ) inspired me to re-think the idea of tinkering with stuffed peppers.

Today is the day!  This evening, I brought out my dutch oven, and got to work.  I put a drizzle of olive oil in, then cut up some onions, diced celery, diced mushrooms, ground turkey, then some tomatoes. 

4 smallish/mediumesque onions                                                 .80
4 stalks of celery                                                                      .25
1/2 container of mushrooms                                                      .80                                              
2 cans diced tomatoes .59x2                                                   1.18
2 lbs ground turkey                                                                 3.38
1 tbsp diced garlic                                                                     .20
Salt, pepper, and onion powder                                                 .10
4 bell peppers, halved and gutted (50 cents each)                      2.00
2 eggs                                                                                       .30
Sprinkle of cheese over the top                                                  .50
                                                                            Total =       9.41

Sprinkle of cheese and sour cream optional.

After warming the aforementioned olive oil drizzle, I dumped in my onions and caramelized them.  In case you have noticed, I caramelize my onions all the time.  I have an allergy to an acid in onions that cooks out.  I could go and look it up, but I really do not want to get up right now.  Anyway, the acid cooks out of the onions, so then I can eat them.  In a horrible case of irony, I LOVE the smell and taste of onions.  Oh well.

Then, I added mushrooms, and celery.  Essentially, the celery took the "filler" place that rice used to occupy.  I cooked the veggies over a medium heat until they were nice and wilty, then I added the thawed ground turkey.  Once the turkey was cooked, I opened and dumped the two cans (14.5oz each) into the pot and stirred.  Turn the heat off, and take the pot off the burner, then stir in your eggs.  The resulting mix will be sort of a wet slurry.

Putting the halved and scooped bell peppers into a greased Pyrex dish, I topped them with the filler and popped them into e 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Next time, I think that I am going to drain the tomatoes before adding them.  The filling wound up being quite "soupy", which to my mind was a great thing going into the oven, but it remained soupy even through the baking.  Of course, without the extra liquid, the peppers might have become rubbery?  Still going to keep the extra juice out of the recipe next time.  I might add a packet of taco seasoning too.  I used to put that into the old recipe, but forgot about it until the peppers were in the oven this time.  The taste was great, so I might just forget about it.  :-)

 

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Note: Cheese and sour cream are not paleo.  A friend of mine, who kindly proofreads my blog, teased me about that.  If you are going Paleo, and not Paleo-adjacent, then please leave off the dairy.  :-)