Stuffed Sweet Peppers With Tuna, Bulgur and Herbs
- Total Time
- 45 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:4 to 6 servings
- 2pounds sweet small bell peppers, cored (about 24)
- 6tablespoons olive oil, more as needed
- 1¼teaspoons fine sea salt, more as needed
- 1cup medium or coarse bulgur
- 1tablespoon tomato paste
- 1teaspoon ground cumin
- 2cups chicken or vegetable stock or water
- ½cup diced celery
- ½cup diced onion
- ½cup diced green bell pepper
- 1medium or 2 small jalapeños, seeded and minced
- 2cloves garlic, minced
- 2chopped anchovy filets (optional)
- Black pepper, to taste
- 1(5- to 7-ounce) jar of tuna packed in olive oil, drained
- 2tablespoons mayonnaise or plain Greek-style yogurt
- 2tablespoons lemon juice, more to taste
- ⅓cup chopped cilantro
- ⅓cup chopped fresh parsley, mint or dill (or a combination), more for garnish
- 2½tablespoons capers
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)
352 calories; 18 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 11 grams monounsaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 34 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams dietary fiber; 9 grams sugars; 16 grams protein; 832 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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- Step 1
Heat oven to 400 degrees. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss peppers with 1½ tablespoons oil and ¼ teaspoon salt. Roast, stirring once or twice, until peppers are tender, 15 to 22 minutes. Set aside to cool.
- Step 2
Meanwhile, in a medium pot, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Add bulgur and toast, stirring, until it smells nutty, about 3 minutes. Add tomato paste, cumin and 1 teaspoon salt, and sauté until tomato paste darkens, 1 to 2 minutes. Pour in stock or water and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer until bulgur is soft all the way through, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain off any remaining liquid and set aside to cool.
- Step 3
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon oil and heat until shimmering. Add celery and sauté until just beginning to soften, about 3 minutes. Add onion, green bell pepper, jalapeño, garlic and anchovies (if using). Sauté until vegetables are just tender but not soft (a little texture is welcome), 4 to 6 minutes. If mixture begins to stick to the bottom of the pan, add a tablespoon or two of water. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside to cool.
- Step 4
Put tuna in a large bowl and use a fork to break into chunks. Add remaining 2½ tablespoons oil, mayonnaise (or yogurt) and lemon juice and mash until tuna is broken into small flakes. Mix in onion-celery mixture, bulgur, herbs and capers and stir well. Taste and add more salt, pepper and/or lemon juice as needed.
- Step 5
Make a slit lengthwise down each pepper to open it up. Stuff the bulgur mixture into the open peppers, then pinch the peppers so that the stuffing holds the two sides together. (It's O.K. if the peppers aren't completely closed.) Arrange on a platter, sprinkle with lemon juice and garnish with herbs. Serve immediately or at room temperature.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Jim Scott
The recipe calls for peppers "cored". Yet your picture shows them with their tops on and you tell us to "make a slit" after they are cooked. So how are we supposed to core them? Not from the top (which you show still attached). Not from the side (which you tell us to slit after cooking). So where? From the tip? That sounds impractical.
Charles Michener
I've done this twice for cocktail parties, once with bulgur and once without. The peppers without bulgur - with just a packing of what is essentially a tuna salad mixture - were more popular. Less mush. It's essential to mince the celery, garlic and anchovies very fine and use the smallest capers. A dash of Tabasco helps. Tuna must be thoroughly drained. Keep stems on for handling and remove core and seeds with index finger. Don't overstuff. Chill.
Dennis Starks
This recipe looks fantastic. However, the difficulty with roasted chilis is coring, while keeping the stem intact. The instructions call for cored peppers, but the stem is intact in the pic. That is virtually impossible on a pepper this small. It would be helpful to know at what point the peppers are supposed to be cored and how to core them without losing the stem. I think the simple solution would be to simply roast them whole and then eat around the core. Could you clarify, please?
Robert
Hello Jim. I agree it's pretty confusing but my best guess would be to roast them whole, cut the slit and simply lift out the core at that stage (which would be a simple operation). I don't see any downside to roasting them with the cores.
Lindy
Disagree regarding fresh tuna being better. I'm sure it's fine, but good canned tuna in oil has a special taste particularly good in mixtures like this. As a general matter, and not particularly as to the very mild example about fresh tuna, I am struck by the tone of so many comments on NYT recipes. Often the commenters seem awfully bossy and superior, certainly more so than the friendlier recipe wtiters, Especially uncalled for are sanctimonious complaints re perceived health issues.
mka
I have always sub'd bulgur with some sort of rice, but avoid quinoa because some celiacs (including my husband) can have cross-reaction. Wild rice would bring nice texture to this. And now for a sub for the tuna....
Kathleen
When I make chili rellenos, I slit the pepper down the side with a T cut just below the stem that allows me to open the pepper and remove the seeds and membrane before i roast them. Granted the peppers are larger, but I think this might work for this recipe.
Walter
I'm with Jim. 'Cored'? When I core a pepper I take the membranes and seeds out from the stem in but in the photo the stems are still intact. Admittedly, in the text the stems are not mentioned one way or another but I have to believe that they would make good handles for noshing. I think I'll just delete the word 'cored' and continue to march.
mjan
So for all those fretting about how and when to core the peppers, in the ingredients list, ignore the word "cored" for the peppers. And in Step 5, add the instruction "Remove core" after the first sentence. There you have it!
Judith Bluysen
Fabulous! And if you use tuna in olive oil, you can first drain the tuna and use the oil for the rest of the stuffing prep (except for toasting the bulgur).
Patricia
In New Mexico (and Mexico), chiles rellenos are made in the way indicated, which is that they are roasted then slit and the insides removed carefully.
Dave H
Made with 2 bags of small peppers. Tried to core half before cooking and half left whole while roasting. Most cores melted away during roasting so coring became moot point. Large ones needed core removed. I would slit/core them before roasting next time. Larger "small" peppers needed a knife and fork rather than finger foods. There is enough stuffing to stuff 6 large peppers for a main course. We poached 8 oz fresh tunain veg. broth and herbs.Better than canned, bagged, jarred tuna.
laura Green
I've been making roast mini-peppers for years. Instead of coring, I make an I-beam shaped slit in the peppers (the long side of the cut is parallel to the long side of the pepper), pinch them slightly open, then add the filling. They are also good with a bit of pepperoni and and a cheese that melts well. They are time consuming, but they practically win applause and dinner invitations.
Andy J
The filling is good in 'classic' stuffed bell peppers (a la Pepin). Pescatarian, too.
A cook chez nous
To make this a vegetarian appetizer I substituted cooked small black lentils for the tuna. Instead of lemon juice, I use two preserved lemons. No need for the mayonnaise when using lentils. The taste is marvelous, and it looks very impressive on a platter. As for the stuffing of the peppers, do whatever works. It is a bit messy. The small peppers don't have that much in the way of seeds to core, in any case.
A cook chez nous
To make this vegetarian use lentils, preferably the small black ones, in place of the tuna. Add cut up preserved lemon at the end. One cup of bulgur makes too much stuffing for that many peppers. Use half a cup, and half a cup of lentils. Stuffing the peppers is a bit messy, but worth the effort, I think.
charlotte
Made these a year later for cocktails and finger food party and gone within minutes. Our mini-bells (no green ones in pkg) again used up only half of the stuffing mix. What to do with the leftover mix, which itself is very tasty?
KCWS
To make this recipe even easier, I used roasted piquillo peppers. I only used half of the bulgur after cooking it, kept all other ingredients the same and I stuffed 18 piquillo peppers.
Beth
I make this all the time and just skip the peppers entirely. It is so fast and easy that way. I recommend being generous with lemon juice and capers for more zest. I often add an additional can of tuna and sometimes white beans to make it an entire meal. It is much tastier after sitting a day.
ronlewis430
left the peppers raw, omitted the bulgur. a fine apptizer
Renee Castle
Dear Jim, Leave the tops of the chilis on so they are easier to eat-the stem acts as a little handle which you discard after eating the stuffed chili. Coring just means taking the seeds and veins out of the chili which you do by cutting from the base of the stem to near the tip of the chili. Remember; this is just food. If you make a mess of things it turns into a salad and still remains delicious. R.
Greg W
I buy these multi colored bagged peppers all the time and roast them whole or just cut off tops. They usually have very few seeds. With a slit I think you will find them easy to clean out. They look Better here with stems on for presentation purposes.
Susan in Anacortes, WA
I've made this twice, and it was very popular. It does require a fair amount of time so be forewarned. I make a "T" cut--part way around the cap and then a vertical slit before roasting. I scraped the insides out with a melon baller, which worked well. Next time, I will try making the T cut but skip the scrapping per suggestions. If you use the small bagged peppers as I did, cut roasting time to no more than 12 mins. Extra stuffing was great in our end-of-summer tomatoes!
Carol Arnold
I roasted the peppers whole, then slit them open to stuff them. My only negative comment is that this took me a lot longer than 45 minutes. I think 45 minutes would do just for the prep work. The peppers look so pretty on the plate!
charlotte
I ate the small amount of bulgur/tuna mix left over for lunch the next day, topped lightly with a little Greek yogurt. Good enough to stand on its own, perhaps with lettuce as a salad or other things.
Joan Wallace
Can this be prepared ahead of time and chilled? If yes, is it better if brought to room temperature before serving?
charlotte
Prepared ahead of time, refridgerated, then brought to room temperature for a cocktails and appetizers birthday party. Delicious.
JOSEPHINE E. AYERS
This looked delicious but as it turns out, it is just a glorified tuna fish salad - a lot more trouble than necessary, not really worth it. I agree, the instructions regarding the peppers are a mystery - I didn't core them before roasting. After slitting I used a fruit spoon to remove the seeds.
Christine
This is a classic example of professional cooks and food writers completely losing touch with the experience of being a normal home cook. I loved the recipe, but no possible way it takes an hour to make. Coring the peppers alone takes more than 20 minutes, and then you have to roast them and there are separate groups of ingredients prepared in a saucepan, a skillet, and a bowl for the stuffing, plus all the chopping. This is a special occasion recipe. Delicious ... but not for a weeknight.
charlotte
As below, roast whole and cores will slip out easily. There goes 20 minutes of unnecessary labor. The photo, while pretty, creates the confusion about coring.
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