Sweet Bell Pepper Pilaf

Rice pilaf is a classic side dish and a family favorite for us. It can be tweaked and changed to go with lots of different cuisines and flavor profiles. This time around I decided to add in some sweet bell peppers and it was such a win. The sweetness of the mini bell peppers was well complimented by the garlic and onion flavors. Sweet Bell Pepper Pilaf is perfect for your next weeknight meal.

I happen to get a bag of the mini bell peppers that was mostly red, so I decided to only use the red ones. You can definitely use the yellow and orange ones when you make this dish. I also went with Fideo for the pasta component. I like it because it matches the rice in thickness so they cook at basically the same rate. You can also use orzo if you have that on hand, just put the orzo in for a minute before you add the rice, since it’s a little bit denser. For the broth I used chicken stock, but you could use vegetable stock and keep this dish on the vegetarian side of the line.

When you are prepping the bell pepper, you want to be sure to get your knife cuts as uniform as possible so that it all cooks at the same rate. What I usually do is cut the end with the stem off, then use a butter knife to clean out the inside of the pepper (all the ribs and seeds), Next I cut it in half and then julienne each half. Last, I cut them into quarter inch chunks. It gives you a perfect size to cook with the rice and pasta, while still having a bit of bite to it.

This pilaf would go great with lots of proteins, steak, chicken, pork..it would work with any of it. I actually used it as a base for a sort of tex-mex bowl. I added in some black beans that I cooked with green chilis, and cumin. And then topped it off with a my Chimichurri Flank Steak. It was such a great combination.

Now Let’s Get Cookin’!

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Sweet Bell Pepper Pilaf

Jazz up your rice pilaf with some tasty sweet bell peppers and thank me later!

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Keyword bell peppers, Garlic, Pasta, rice, rice pilaf, sweet peppers

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp Oil
• 4 Garlic Cloves minced
• 2 cups Long Grain Rice
• 1 cup Fideo
• 1 tsp Parsley
• 1 tsp Onion Powder
• 2 cups Sweet Bell Peppers finely diced
• 6 cups Broth chicken or vegetable

Instructions

• In a large saute pan over medium-high heat, add oil, garlic, rice and fideo. Saute for 3 minutes (until rice is slightly toasted), then add bell peppers, parsley and onion powder and saute another 2 minutes.
• Add broth to pan and bring just to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cover pan. Cook for 20 minutes. Fluff with a fork.