Food & Facts – Summer 2026

Light Summer Dining

Being older, and a lifelong gardener, I still think of bell peppers as a summer vegetable. But with supermarket peppers now decent year-round, that old summer favorite, baked stuffed peppers, can be had anytime. 

Many stuffed pepper variations are out there in the world, though I still go for the American style of stuffing bell peppers with meat and rice and baking them in a sauce. They’re work, but make a delightful light summer meal, especially with a salad and a glass of wine or beer. 

Mexico, where stuffing peppers long pre-dated the arrival of the Spaniards, currently features “Chiles Rellenos,” rich-flavored Poblano or other peppers stuffed with cheese or meat then battered and fried. Mexicans also make the gorgeous “Chiles en Nogada,” dark green Poblanos baked with a savory beef picadillo filling then topped with creamy white walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds. Boasting Mexico’s national green, white and red, Chiles en Nogada are traditional on September 16th, Mexican Independence Day. 

As a kid, I first encountered green bell peppers stuffed with ground beef and rice and topped with sweet-sour tomato sauce at my German-Polish neighbors’ house. Much later, on the coast in Valencia Province, Spain, I enjoyed red bell peppers cooked with an amazing filling of smoked tuna and rice. In Central Europe, meat-and-rice-stuffed peppers are often topped with a paprika-rich sauce and sour cream. The Turks and other Middle-Easterners, who stuff all kinds of vegetables, even grape and cabbage leaves, bake peppers filled with aromatically spiced ground lamb and rice. Turkish delicatessens in Germany sell these “Biber Dolmasi” from the display counter. In Malaysia, where we lived for many years, I learned to make Cantonese fried pepper quarters stuffed with a freshly chopped white fish mixture and served in a brown bean sauce.   

Peppers may be a popular summer vegetable but botanically are actually “fruits.” They’re members of the Nightshade family and are classified as berries, having fleshy exteriors, containing seeds, with each fruit having developed from a single flower. It’s culinarily that peppers are considered vegetables, as are many other seed-containing “fruits” like tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, eggplants, cucumbers, gourds, avocados, olives, okra, green beans and snow peas. 

Originating in Central and South America, the pepper family (Capsicums) ranges from small hot “chili” peppers to larger, fleshy “sweet” peppers. The word “pimiento,” or “pepper,” which originally referred to Asian black peppercorns, was applied by the Spanish in Mexico to the local hot peppers because of their peppercorn-like pungency. The indigenous Nahuatl (Aztec) name for peppers was “chilli.” 

Chili peppers, cultivated at least 6,000 years, were once uniformly hot and spicy due to their capsaicin content. The “heat” gave protection against foraging mammals. But, beneficially, since birds lack the pain receptors that react to capsaicins, they can eat chilies and then disperse the seeds in their droppings. Over time, increasingly mild and fleshy pepper varieties were selected by farming people for cooking, while the hot peppers remained valuable for seasoning. Our familiar sweet “bell” peppers are a relatively recent development, a hundred years or a little more. Sweet peppers are generally the type used for stuffing. 

Peppers can be halved lengthwise, their seeds and membranes removed, then stuffed and baked. Alternatively, they can be kept whole, their tops sliced off, seeds and membranes removed, and stuffed. Then with their tops replaced, the peppers are simmered or baked. Either way they are usually cooked in a sauce. I now make a lighter sauce than I used to. Bon Appetit! 

Baked Stuffed Peppers

Serves 3-4. Can be eaten fresh from the oven or baked ahead and reheated in the microwave for serving.

Filling:

Toppings: 

Sauce: 

Cut peppers in half lengthwise through the stem. Cut across upper part of core, inside the pepper, leaving a thin wall of the stem and upper core. Remove seeds and membranes. Place pepper halves cut side down on a plate. Wet with several tablespoons of water and microwave until fully tender and collapsing a little (try 6 minutes, touch for tenderness, then another 4 minutes, then 1 minute at a time, until done). Alternatively, in large baking dish with 1/2 inch water, bake, cut side down, at 375 degrees for 25 minutes, or until fully softened. Cool. Sprinkle the insides of the peppers lightly with salt. 

In a bowl, thoroughly mix ground meat and remaining filling ingredients. Pack filling carefully into the prepared pepper halves and place them, filling side up, in a baking dish large enough to just hold them. Smooth the rounded filling surfaces. Place a slice of tomato or four grape tomato halves, cut side up, on each pepper filling and press tomato in lightly. Sprinkle a little parsley, if used, on tomato. Drizzle lightly with olive oil. 

Mix sauce ingredients and pour it around the stuffed peppers. Add more water, if needed, to come up a quarter of the height of the peppers. 

Bake at 375 degrees until filling is firm, about 35-40 minutes. 

Serve hot, with the sauce to spoon over them. Or cool and refrigerate them and microwave to reheat for serving.

Tim Dondero, co-owner and executive chef at Dondero’s Kitchen, is a culinary enthusiast who has taught international cooking in Atlanta and Athens for many years. You can see more recipes at timsspecialrecipes.com.