camp meals

Skillet Stuffed Pepper Hash

Sausage, rice, and tomato cooked down in one skillet, with the peppers stirred in instead of stuffed.

calories
610
weight
11 oz
cal / oz
55
protein
26 g
serves
4, scales
prep
10 min
cook
25 min
total time
35 min
water
none
cost
$$

Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.

  • Dinner
  • Campfire coals
  • Grill grate
  • Liquid fuel
  • Car camping
  • Basecamp
  • Gluten free
  • Nut free
  • One pot
  • Pre-mix at home
  • Needs a cooler
  • Basic

Ingredients

Olive oil 2 tbsp
Bulk pork sausage 1 lb brown it at home and carry it cooked if the cooler is tight
Onion 1 medium, diced
Garlic 2 cloves, minced
Sweet bell peppers 3, chopped
Zucchini 1 medium, diced
Canned diced tomatoes 1 14 oz can juice and all
Tomato paste 2 tbsp a tube keeps better than a can
Cooked rice 2 cups cook at home, cool, and bag it
Italian seasoning 1 tbsp
Salt and black pepper to taste
Shredded cheddar 4 oz

Method

  1. Set the skillet on the grate over a bed of coals, not flames. Add the oil and let it thin out.
  2. Brown the sausage with the onion and garlic, breaking it up as it goes. Eight to ten minutes. Pour off fat only if it pools.
  3. Add the peppers and zucchini. Cook until the peppers give a little, about five minutes.
  4. Stir in the tomatoes with their juice, the tomato paste, and the seasoning. Let it bubble down for five minutes.
  5. Fold in the rice and cook until the pan is thick rather than wet, five more minutes.
  6. Kill the heat, scatter the cheese over the top, and cover with foil or a lid for three minutes until it melts.

The source version hollows out bell peppers and bakes them in coals for forty minutes. That is a long time to babysit a fire for a dish whose real content is sausage, rice, and tomato. Chopping the peppers into the pan gets the same flavors in a quarter of the time, and it removes the part of the recipe most likely to burn on one side while staying raw on the other.

Cooking the rice at home is the other change worth making. Rice takes twenty minutes and a lot of water, and it soaks up tomato juice better once it is already cooked. Bagged cold rice goes straight into the skillet and thickens the whole thing on contact. The cheese goes on off the heat so it melts instead of seizing.

Packing

Sausage, peppers, zucchini, and cheese ride in the cooler. Rice goes in a bag pre-cooked. Tomato paste in a tube, seasoning premixed in a small jar with the salt and pepper.

Variations

  • Swap the rice for instant rice and 1 1/2 cups of water added with the tomatoes. Cover and simmer ten minutes.
  • Ground beef or turkey works the same. So does a can of drained beans if you skip the meat.
  • Halve the peppers lengthwise, spoon the filling in, and set them on the grate for fifteen minutes if you want the original shape.

https://campfirefoodie.com/skillet-stuffed-peppers-recipe