Turkey Italian Sausage Stuffed Bell Peppers
Low calorie turkey Italian sausage stuffed bell peppers
Equipment
- 1 baking dish, glass
- 1 bowl, stainless, large
- 1 masher, ground meat
- 1 pan, saute, 12 inch nonstick, with lid
Ingredients
- 4 each pepper, bell, green, raw Get the kind with 4 lobes, not 3. Otherwise they will wobble. No one likes a wobbly pepper.
- 4 each Powdered Tortilla Man
- 5 links sausage, turkey, Italian, sweet, Jennie-O Get the links and Skin it! Skin that smokewagon and see what happens.
- 150 g onion, yellow Chopped fine. I'm not saying brunoise, but if you can do it, do it.
- 500 g eggplant Skin on. 1/2" cubes. They shrink.
- 20 g cheese, Parmesan Yeah. The kind in the can.
- 15 g paste, tomato
- 14 g tomatoes, sun dried, no oil Minced. The dry kind, not the ones in oil.
- 20 g garlic, roasted Roast your own. It's not hard.
- 40 g pepper, bell, red, roasted Roast your own.
- 4 g seasoning, Italian
- as needed salt, kosher
- as needed fat, spray-on pan lube
Instructions
Powdered Tortilla Man Prep
- Preheat oven to 400℉
- Throw tortillas directly on the oven rack. Wait five minutes and check them. If they are still white and completely dry, pull them and set aside to cool. If not, let them go another two minutes or until they are dry.4 each Powdered Tortilla Man
- Break the tortillas into smaller pieces and whiz them up into a fine powder in your food processor. Yes. I know, you're basically turning them back into flour, but it's low carb flour you can count on.
Bell Pepper Prep
- Cut peppers in half, through the stem, gutted and stem removed.4 each pepper, bell, green, raw
- Place pepper halves face down in the glass baking dish.The reason you do them cut side down is to prevent water from collecting in them as they cook. As it hits the baking dish, it evaporates and helps steam the inside. What a miracle of modern science!
- Bake for about 20 minutes or until the peppers are wilty. I hate raw green bell peppers in general, but particularly in this dish.
- Pull them and set aside until showtime.
Stuffing Prep
- Fire up your nonstick skillet on high. When it's hot, lube that bad boy.as needed fat, spray-on pan lube
- Add your onions and let them get some color on them.150 g onion, yellow
- Add your skinned turkey sausage links and immediately begin breaking them up with the meat masher thingy. Keep mashing. Mash some more. Wait! That's too much. Oh, no. I was wrong. Keep going.Funny thing about this sausage: It's not like real Italian sausage. There is not an herb or spice to be seen in it. I actually had to check the packaging to make sure I hadn't grabbed something else. The flavoring is in there, though. You can smell it when it cooks without having to bite into a fennel seed.5 links sausage, turkey, Italian, sweet, Jennie-O
- When the sausage starts to brown a bit, add your tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, red peppers and Italian seasoning. Mix thoroughly and keep cooking.15 g paste, tomato, 14 g tomatoes, sun dried, no oil, 20 g garlic, roasted, 40 g pepper, bell, red, roasted, 4 g seasoning, Italian
- When the sausage is done, but not dry, add your eggplant. Mix thoroughly. Cover and lower the heat. Wait five minutes, give it another stir to make sure most of the eggplant is starting to soften up and turn yellow-y. Remove from heat.500 g eggplant
- Turn the contents of your pan into a large mixing bowl to let it cool before adding the cheese, lest ye experience canned parm clumping. We'll get to that in a minute.
Show Time
- While you're waiting on your stuffing to cool, have a cocktail and turn your attention to the bell pepper halves. Flip them over in the baking dish and salt a little bit on the inside. Don't go crazy. The sausage and parm bring a decent amount of salt to the party. It's just that you're going to eat the pepper. It needs seasoning.Speaking of which, you could also sprinkle a little extra Italian seasoning with your salt. That never hurts.4 each pepper, bell, green, raw, as needed salt, kosher, 4 g seasoning, Italian
- Ok. Your peppers are prepped, your stuffing is at a reasonable temperature. Let's light this candle.
- Toss your parm and your PTM together. This will also help prevent the cheese from clumping in case your stuffing is still hot in places.20 g cheese, Parmesan, 4 each Powdered Tortilla Man
- Add the Parm mixture to the stuffing and incorporate. You don't need to overwork it, just get a good, even distribution of everything.
- I don't actually stuff my peppers. I spoon my filling in, one pepper at a time, going from pepper to pepper until I run out of filling. The goal is to fill, but not pack. They will be overflowing, that's OK.
- Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 20 minutes. You can do it uncovered, but with the PTM, it tends to get a bit dry. When you do it covered, the PTM will absorb the moisture and make for a heartier texture.
- This is optional. If you do cook it covered, remove the foil after 20 minutes and fire the oven up to Broil. Keep an eye on it. You want it to brown and get a bit dry on the top for a nice blend of textures.
Notes
Once again, for diet food, this isn't bad. If you want, you can do it with Johnsonville Sweet Italian Sausage. I think it only adds another 50 or so calories per pepper half. I'd need to do the math and I'm not going to. I used it in the prototype recipe and I think that sounds about right.
Please note I specified links in this recipe and not the bulk sausage. This is because the links are 19.5 ounces and the bulk is 16. If you do use the bulk, add more eggplant as filler. You do you.
Oh. In the photo, there is actually some nasty ass low fat Italian cheese blend on top. Don't do that. It's not worth it. Rather than melt well, it just turns into some kind of vaguely cheese flavored polymer. Unless you're into vaguely cheese flavored polymers, then go for it, but just know the calories will increase.
Nutrition
Serving: 1half pepperCalories: 174kcal
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