Indian Stuffed Peppers with Butter-Curry Sauce (Paleo, Whole30)

In each issue of Paleo Magazine, Steph Gaudreau and I bring you the story of a traditional recipe and adapt it to fit into a healthier Paleo lifestyle. In this installment, we get the lowdown on stuffed peppers and share a recipe that takes you to India.

Saved by the Bell

From July through September, farmers markets and backyard gardens are filled with bushels and pecks of bell peppers in vibrant green, orange, red, yellow, and purple. The roots of bell peppers stretch back 9000 years, to the tropical areas of South America, Central America, and Mexico. After his voyage of 1492, Christopher Columbus took peppers from the West Indies to Spain, where they were dubbed “Spanish Peppers,” were grown in the royal gardens, and became popular in cuisine around the Mediterranean.

It wasn’t until the late 17th century that so-called Spanish Peppers were renamed “bell peppers” by Lionel Wafer, a privateer and ship surgeon who documented his adventures in Panama with the Cuna Indians in his book A New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America. His account includes robust descriptions of the geography, the “Indian inhabitants” and their “customs, employments, marriages, feasts, hunting…” (See the original manuscript online here.)

One of the first recipes for stuffed peppers in the United States appeared in the 1896 Boston Cooking School Cook Book by Fannie Farmer. It’s a simple recipe that calls for stuffing a whole pepper with steamed rice, cooked meat, stewed tomatoes, and butter. A variation gets creative with veal, bread crumbs, and onion juice. All around the world, many cuisines have their own approach to this simple combination. In Spain, it’s arborio rice and saffron; in Romania, pork, rice, and sour cream; in Korea, the peppers are stuffed with tofu; in the Philippines, the filling includes shrimp, pork, and water chestnuts; and in Denmark, the rice is replaced with bulgur wheat and instead of meat, it’s mushrooms and kale (known as Fyldte Peberfrugter).

For our recipe, we chose an Indian version that marries ground lamb with fragrant spices, replaces the rice with potatoes, and relaxes the traditional tomato sauce into a velvety texture with the addition of coconut milk and fragrant Indian spices. It can be tricky to cook the meat filling completely without baking the pepper into mushy oblivion. To get the texture of the pepper just right, we give the peppers a light oven-steaming and pre-cook the meat and potatoes for the filling. It’s easy and fast, and the end result yields crisp-tender peppers, flavorful filling, and a rich sauce that’s like eating puffy curry clouds.

Indian Stuffed Peppers with Butter-Curry Sauce

Serves 4-6 | Total time: 60-75 minutes | Hands-off time: 30 minutes

Cookup Tips

The peppers can be stuffed and the sauce can be cooked up to one day ahead; store covered in the refrigerator. Add 10 minutes baking time if you’ve stored the uncooked peppers in the fridge. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. The leftovers taste great chopped up and mixed into a scramble with eggs for a fast breakfast (or brinner).