These Stuffed Carmen Peppers are super flavorful with a nice sweetness and zero heat. Stuffed with ground turkey and cheese they make a delicious meal any day of the week.
I've been cooking a lot of lower carb meals lately. So when my daughter brought home these beautiful Carmen peppers from the student farm, I thought they would be great to stuff and bake for dinner.
Stuffed Carmen Peppers
Carmen peppers are an Italian sweet pepper. They are often the same pepper that you would find in a jar of roasted red peppers. I've never grown them but I'm told that they are very easy to grow and are pretty prolific.
Their horn shape doesn't give you a ton of room for filling but if you are watching what you eat I think it's the perfect balance of filling and vegetable.
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For this filling, I used ground turkey, cream cheese, shredded cheese, and salsa. No rice or other starch needed.
A little on the rich side but as I mentioned you're not really using too much filling to stuff the peppers.
I found that you can tightly place the peppers, with the tops back on, into a baking pan and they will stay together.
Since the filling was more of a Mexican blend I served the peppers with a side of shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, and some sour cream.
Other great options would be cilantro, sliced black olives, pico de gallo, more salsa, guacamole or simply sliced avocado.
Next time you see these beauties at the farmer's market or grocery store pick up a few and give them a try.
P.S. You may also like this crockpot recipe for Italian Meatball Stuffed Peppers or these Mexican Chicken Peppers stuffed with chicken, black beans and rice. You can find them and many more tasty ideas on my Recipes Page.
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Stuffed Carmen Peppers
Ingredients
- 5 Carmen peppers
- 1/2 pound ground turkey
- 1/2 cup jarred salsa
- 4 oz softened cream cheese
- 1 cup Mexican shredded cheese mix
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
Instructions
- Preheat 350 degrees
- Cut off tops of peppers.
- Remove ribs and seeds
- Brown turkey.
- Add salsa and cumin.
- Lower heat and add cream cheese and shredded cheese.
- Fill peppers and place the tops back on.
- Pack tightly into a vegetable oil sprayed glass baking pan.
- Bake for 35 minutes.
- Serve with chopped lettuce, tomatoes and a dollop of sour cream.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. Although attempts have been made to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
Betty Schwartz
Wrap them in a strip of bacon and bake as usual!! Gives them a bit more protein and lots of additional yum! Also, for an Italian edge- switch out the ground turkey for Italian sausage - or just any good ground sausage. (I do this with jalapenos also!)
This is one that would disappear in seconds in my household when my kids were growing up!
Patti Estep
All great ideas to try. I know my husband loves Italian sausage. Thanks for sharing Betty.
Paula Harris
Giving it a try today. Hubby doesn't like cream cheese so only using 1/2 of that. Should still be good. Will let you know. Thanks for sharing.
Patti Estep
Thanks Paula. I think it will be just fine with 1/2 the cream cheese.
Paula Harris
Patti, I did make the above recipe. The only change I made was adding some soyrizzo that I had in the frig I needed to use. I did use only 1/2 the cream cheese and it worked just fine also. Everyone loved the recipe and said it is a keeper. Thank you again for sharing.
Patti Estep
Thanks for sharing Paula. I'm so glad you liked it. I've never used Soyrizzo but it's good to know that there is a non-meat option for this recipe.
Carole West
Yum, I love peppers and currently missing my vegetables while being on this all protein diet. But this looks like something I could try once I hit my goal because I find the real trick to weight loss is learning how to maintain the result. When you mentioned skipping rice that's where it clicks because all those filler foods really aren't necessary to establish a healthy diet. Great recipe and I really like the bright presentaion, a colorful meal is so inviting.
Patti Estep
Thanks Carole. I hope you get a chance to try it one day.
Paula J
you can use quinoa instead of rice. quinoa has protein in it.
Patti Estep
Yes, quinoa would be a great idea. Thanks for sharing Paula.