Orzo Stuffed Peppers - Giada De Laurentis

Sometimes you want to make something that reminds you of something from your childhood, but with a different spin on it. Growing up, my Mom used to make a stuffed green pepper with ground beef and a number of other things that I can't remember right now in it. It was always delicious, but as I have gotten older my tastes have changed and I don't really cook with ground beef all that much. So, when I came across Orzo Stuffed Peppers it sounded like something that would bring me back to that dish my Mom made, but bring something new to it.

In essence, it is a relatively simple recipe to prepare. It does help if you have a food processor to grate the zucchini so that it is not as time consuming. Everything else comes together rather quickly. The longest part of the preparation is the cooking time, which might not make it a good weeknight meal for many people. It takes 45 minutes of initial baking time, then after adding additional sprinkling of cheese it goes back in for another 15 minutes. If you want to make this a vegetarian meal you could substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth.

The dish was good, but since it did not include any protein my Husband felt it was not filling enough as a main course but would have been better as a side dish. Also, it could have used a bit more flavor to it, which is a complaint I have noticed others have had with recipes from Giada. I think when making it again, I will have to make some change to the recipe. I would probably brown up some sweet Italian sausage to mix in with the other ingredients to start. I'll continue on my search for a really amazing stuffed pepper recipe, but this was a good way to begin the search.

This recipe has so many anti-oxident rich vegetables in it, that it qualifies for the weekly ARF 5 a Day round-up over at Sweetnicks. ARF foods should be included in your daily diet because they are high in beta-carotene, fiber and vitamin C - all things we can use more of each day.