Crock Pot Pork-Stuffed Peppers
After a busy day, opening your front door and inhaling the savory, warm aroma of dinner cooking is a great feeling. Especially if you can take credit for it, even if you’ve been at work all day. The Crock Pot (which is actually a brand name of what is generically called a slow cooker) is a humble but ingenious kitchen appliance. If you can find the time to fill it with some assortment of meat and vegetables and a little broth or water, the Crock Pot will take it from there. While you head off to work or pull weeds in the yard or just lie on the couch and relax, the Crock Pot slowly works its magic.
Crock Pot recipes shouldn’t be too complicated or they defeat the whole purpose of using a Crock Pot. They should, however, contain a variety of ingredients so you can get all the flavor and nutrients you need out of a one-pot meal. The recipe for Crock Pot Pork-Stuffed Peppers that Katerina Shchyelkunova submitted to the Primal Blueprint Cookbook Challenge easily meets this unofficial Crock Pot criteria. Most importantly, her recipe satisfies a craving for unfussy but extremely satisfying comfort food.
The green peppers will hold their shape while cooking and become individual little serving dishes filled with a mild but flavorful blend of ground pork and vegetables. Grated cauliflower seamlessly blends in and the carrots add a burst of color and a little bit of sweetness. Katerina uses dried tarragon in her recipe, but we tried fresh and loved the subtle anise flavor it added.
If you don’t have these exact ingredients in your kitchen, don’t sweat it. The Crock Pot is very forgiving – yet another one of its attributes that we love. Katerina sometimes uses ground beef or a combination of different ground meats. We can also imagine using diced tomatoes instead of paste and a bold combination of spices for those with a more adventurous palate. Left as is, however, this recipe will greet you at the end of the day with its comforting aroma, and a provide a meal that the whole family will love.
Ingredients:
- 2 pounds ground pork (or a combination of pork and beef)
- 4 large green peppers
- 1 large onion
- 2 carrots
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 head of cauliflower
- 6 ounce can of tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon dry oregano
- 1 tablespoon dry or fresh tarragon
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
Cut the tops of the peppers and clean the seeds out.
Arrange peppers in the Crock-Pot standing up and make sure they fit securely.
Grate onion, carrots, garlic and cauliflower in the food processor. You can also just chop them into small pieces with a knife if you don’t have a food processor.
In a big bowl, combine ground pork, shredded vegetables, seasonings and tomato paste.
Add salt and pepper to taste. Stuff the peppers with the mixture and arrange leftover meat between the peppers. Add half a cup of water, cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours.
If you don’t have a slow-cooker, the dish can be cooked in the oven, covered, for 1-2 hours.
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Posted By: Worker Bee
I agree with Niel. This is the first primal recipe I didn’t like. My best friend didn’t like it either and that says a lot because she always likes everything I cook. Never again. Yuck.
Since I don’t have a slow cooker, I’ll just make these in the oven. Works great since my mom just got a whole lot of lean ground beef
this was super bland and the consistency was awful. I would not recommend it without some major changes.
Jen, did you add salt and pepper to taste?
No good. My husband usually likes anything and everything, but he hated these. He said it was really watery and the pepper turned out gross. I think adding some tomato sauce around the peppers instead of water would have made a huge difference. If I make these again I’ll also try baking them in the oven instead. Sorry, but there are yummier paleo stuffed pepper recipes out there.
Ex-Pat in Asia..
I used a bamboo Streamer and Stuffed Peppers came out fantastic in 40-50 mins..
This can be probably my husband’s favored food. I love that, too, and you contain it put together his favourite way now. I’ve never stated in at home before, but given that we live far far from any good restaurants, this will be a great surprise pertaining to him! Lena Vandis
John, try the same recipe or other version and cook them in a Steamer, I use a traditional Asian steamer, retains the color. I used red, yellow and orange bell’s.
takes 30-40 minutes….
If you need a picture let me know..
RECIPE REVIEW: it did indeed come out very bland like other posters had commented. It needs more flavor, the garlic isn’t enough. I would say put 10 cloves in there! It needs a sauce, definitely. Because I didn’t have any real food ingredients on hand to make a sauce, I was “forced” to use Sloppy Joe sauce from my pre-Primal days! Obviously I chose to do that, but my point to other posters that try this recipe is, definitely make a sauce, or add more flavor to the meat.
Also, the meat is more than enough to stuff 4 peppers. You can make the extra into hamburger patties, or meatballs, like another poster had suggested.
I would make this again using more flavor and a better sauce.
I found this on Pinterest and am going to try this tomorrow night. Although I’m going to add in chilli mexican beans for a bit of extra kick. Love my slow cooker and am always looking for new recipes to try – thanks!
I made these and mine also turned out really bland and quite watery. The peppers were practically mush and fell apart as soon as I took them out. The meat definitely needs more seasoning and I agree with others who said the recipe could use a sauce to go with it.
can you use any other veggies with this and what would be good we dont like carrots and cauliflower
Reality check on this recipe:
2 lbs of meat is WAY too much. Do the math: that’s a half pound of meat per bell peppers and you haven’t even factored in the onion, carrot or half a head of cauliflower.
I followed the recipe to a “T” and here is the deal. It’s bland and boring. Thank whoever it’s healthy, but it’s about as exciting as a bowl of almond flour and water. I actually thought I was coming down with something and my taste buds were being dulled out, but everyone else agreed…it’s bland.
It definitely needs salt or some type of spicy seasoning to wake it up. Adding the water: unnecessary. The peppers were practically floating in a pool of liquid when they were done.
To make this palatable: add salt and whatever other spices you can think of. You know it’s a bad sign when 8 hours into a slow cook and your kitchen smells like…a kitchen with nothing cooking in it.
Keepin’ it real.
Just put these in my crockpot! I’m having a dinner party tonight. I used ground turkey instead of pork. Also diced up some green pepper left over from breakfast omlettes and mixed with meat mixture! I’ll let you know how they turn out. Thanks for sharing!
I just tried this recipe. I made a few substitutions. Since I tend to prefer beef, I used USDA certified organic ground beef instead of pork. The tablespoons of herbs were heaping tablespoons. I put a teaspoon of black pepper, and a heaping teaspoon of sea salt (the good, dirty looking stuff).
First off, the heaping teaspoon of salt was insufficient. I’ll try two next time. The other stuff seemed like enough, though I may try to throw in some spices other than black pepper. Maybe even chop a few jalapenos into it.
I also used six peppers, instead of four, as the recipe looked like it could accommodate more… and indeed, it did.
As other users commented, the peppers on the bottom layer (four fit in my slow cooker, so two were stacked on top) fell apart to the touch. The top two did not… because unlike the bottom ones, they were properly slow cooked, rather than being boiled in the copious quantities of juices this recipe produces.
The problem is the onions. Any time onions are slow cooked, the water in them comes out. A chili recipe I used to cook (in my pre-primal days) had no liquids of any kind in it, but lots of onions, and produced a very watery chili.
I do like the idea of a stuffed pepper with lots of vegetables instead of the usual rice, and the filling was good. I put some of it on the indoor grill for breakfast (right after closing the slow cooker), and it was delicious. But in the future, I’ll likely pre-cook the meat and the onions together (which is more traditional method for stuffed peppers) and drain the juices, to get a dryer cooking process in the slow cooker. Also, two teaspoons of salt this time, instead of one. Maybe throw in diced tomatoes in addition to the paste, and some chili powder and cumin would be good, too.
These do look good, but they are in no means healthy, i just typed this into a recipe calculator…over 800 calories per stuffed pepper! Gross! Not eating these…..
I made these last night and they did not turn out. Like others said, very bland and the bell peppers went to mush. My crockpot also cooks really hot and they were over cooked after just 4 hrs on low.
Found your recipe on Pinterest. I have never eaten or made stuffed peppers before, but wanted to try something different. My picky husband really enjoyed the recipe and I did too. Next time we will substitute rice for the cauliflower. Thanks!
Wanted to add – I cooked them in the oven. 1 1/2 hours at 325F (our oven runs warm).