Stuffed peppers: Cooked or raw rice?

Please reply to above message, i am serving the pepper for dinner tonight

I placed them in the oven on low two hows. They can out wonderful.
I will not use brown rice again…

No one. No one should use canned tomato soup to make stuffed peppers. Please don’t pour it on top of pasta to make spaghetti either. There are thousands of Italians rolling around in their graves.

I make mine the same way, an old recipe from way back. In fact I had six neighbors for dinner. They told me they were the best stuffed they have ever had!
To to the person who just wrote and said, ( i should stop cooking, before i hurt someone) if you cannot say something nice, don’t say anything!

Just because you said that to her, I am going to try her recipe, to see how it turns out. The thing is, a chef, if rolling around in his or her grave, would be rolling around because they want to get out of the grave to try a recipe. In my opinion, if something tastes great, then no one, not even a chef would balk at the ingredients. It's only when something does not taste great that they would be upset. A chef specializes in making meals that taste amazing. I find it fascinating when someone can put together a meal with things in the cupboard that comes out scrumptious! You should try it before you criticize it.

I agree!

Chef here. Just tossed myself in a grave, got out, rolled over a few times, and opened an acct here just to comment and say… NO NO NO. Canned tomato soup? CREAMED canned tomato soup? Please don’t. Is this a struggle meal? If you’re left with no choice, at least note it as a secret ingredient. Use organic canned stewed tomatoes. Thank you

Cheese? Microwave? Stop cooking before you hurt someone

Cheese tastes great on stuffed bell peppers. Also, microwaves were made to make cooking easier. You should try it sometime. Maybe you should put your meatloaf of a head in the microwave and learn to be nice.

Robin, both from experience and reading the answers so far, you could do it either way. I learned to make the dish with cooked rice because I learned a brown rice recipe and that takes longer. If you are using white rice or only a small amount of rice for the whole recipe (one I just scanned has only 1/2c raw rice for 6 peppers), then use raw rice.
Once you figure out which works better for your cooking schedule or style, keep to that. After two or three times making the same recipe, you will have your quantities of liquid, temp and time set to your preference.

I just made my stuffed peppers the other day this is how I was taught by my Serbian grandmother.. we always made them with raw Hamburg and I put in the rice in the Hamburg and I cut up the tops of the green pepper Dyson small mix that in with them and a little bit of tomato sauce that I like mix that in with them and one egg... then I cut and clean the peppers and sprinkle very little salt and each one before I fill...THAT ... is what makes them so they don't get soggy then I stuffed the pepper topping with a little bit of the tomato sauce mix that I use put them in the oven at 350 for 1 hour and 30 minutes cuz usually mine are pretty big and they come out delicious I use green pepper because that's the kind I like the best sometimes I topping with cheese and sometimes I don't but I make sure there's enough juice in the pan that I bake a potato pretty soft and put the pepper in the sauce over the potato and it makes a delicious meal...✌🇺🇸🙏

Whew! Seeing your comment is a relief. I wrote a book and included our old family recipe which includes raw ingredients. I assume using cooked meat just makes for quicker cooking. I named the recipe, Stuck up and Stuffed Peppers because of the color variations. My book is called, “A Book of Poetry a Sister Can EatTo”. Check it out at blessedpenink.com or order it on Amazon.com or your favorite online bookstore!

Susan, that is exactly what I do every time I go home, or when my dad comes for a visit!!! My mom passed away last year and he is now the keeper of our family dish. I now realize that nothing compares to the flavors of the dish that we cooked together. I make the same dish at home, and it kind of looks the same, but it is never really the same.

Wow! Bulgur! What a terrific idea, Annie! I'll certainly try that next time, as I seasoned the ground beef with rather Lebanese-style flavors (cinnamon, allspice, dried mint, oregano). Thank you!

Ha, ha, ha. Good luck and let us know how it turned out! (And make sure you cover the pot, at least in the beginning.) It just occurred to me that there are so many other regions/countries in the world that stuff their peppers: Spain, Mexico, India, Scandinavians too -- and we have not heard their perspective as yet!!!

I was just about to ask the same thing. My Grandmother was Greek and my Grandfather Turkish, but I think they used cooked rice. I'm going to have to ask my mom if she knows.

Yes, you need to make sure that the peppers (or veggies) are sitting in the liquid about 1/3 or halfway through. And you will need to reduce the oven temperature, since it will take longer time to cook. A while ago I posted a recipe for a dish of stuffed veggies, here is the link, maybe you will find it helpful https://food52.com/recipes/23293-the-summer-pot-of-joy (A note: temperatures and cooking times will depend on the oven, the quantity of peppers and the type of dish you are using, so use them mainly as rough guides and keep an eye.) Hope this helps...

Suzan, I think I will need to elaborate on my previous answer :) I was born in a “once upon a time country” called Yugoslavia (it included today’s Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Slovenia and Montenegro). Most of the food had strong influences from the south (Greek and Turkey) and north (Hungary), and stuffed cabbage and stuffed vegetables are considered the staple food. In season, folks make it at least once a week. Also, I have traveled quite a bit in the region, especially Greece, and cooked with many Greek cooks. My observation is that most cooks make the dish with uncooked rice. That is the traditional, old-fashioned way of doing it. But I have seen versions with cooked rice, I think that they became more popular as people got busier and tried to accelerate cooking process. So come to think about it – the answer to the question is that both approaches will work. It is not that one is correct and the other is not, it is just that the dishes will taste different. The reason I prefer uncooked rice approach, is that the longer bake in the oven brings out a particular sweetness in the peppers that is quite magnificent, which might be difficult to do with the speedier roast.

Queen Sashy, my Grandparents were born in the very late 1800s or early 1900s. They did not have birth certificates. They both came from Greece through Ellis Island, although my Pappou was born in Turkey. They were definitely not part of a fast moving group. :) Hardworking, but not fast moving. I have a feeling I may have switched over to using cooked rice as a way to use up leftover rice. My mom was born here in 1926, so she also probably used raw rice when she made them.

Bigpan you are right, but you may want to try it with raw rice, because the flavor will be different. It is more of a slow simmer type flavor, when the peppers kind of begin to melt as opposed to just being roasted. It is a whole lot of goodness.

I was taught to use raw rice by a Hungarian cook.

... same here. It is very typical for the cuisine of the region. But one thing I forgot to mention, this requires somewhat lower oven temperature than when using cook rice.

... meant to type cooked rice -- the beauty of answering questions on iPhone