🫑 Punjena Paprika (Stuffed Peppers)
Punjena paprika are bell peppers stuffed with a mixture of ground meat, rice and onion, then baked or braised in a tomato sauce until soft. The peppers turn sweet and tender while the filling stays juicy, and the tomato sauce thickens around them. They are a home-style main dish across the former Yugoslavia, especially in summer.
Diets
Allergens
None of the 14 major allergens in a typical recipe.
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 bell peppers
- 500 g ground meat
- 100 g rice, rinsed
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 500 ml tomato passata
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- Salt and black pepper
Method
- Cut the tops off the peppers and remove the seeds.
- Soften the onion in the oil, then mix with the meat, rice, paprika, salt and pepper.
- Fill the peppers loosely with the mixture and stand them in a deep dish.
- Pour the passata and 300 ml water around them.
- Cover and bake at 180 °C for about 60 minutes until the rice is cooked; serve with the sauce.
How to make it lighter
- Choose lean ground meat to reduce fat noticeably.
- Replace part of the rice with finely chopped vegetables such as carrot or zucchini.
- Make one or two peppers a portion and add a salad on the side.
History
Stuffed vegetables spread across the Balkans with Ottoman cooking, and stuffed peppers became a staple of Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian home kitchens. Today they are a common family dish throughout the region.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →