Töltött paprika, Hungarian stuffed peppers, is home cooking in the best sense: sweet peppers filled with seasoned pork and rice, simmered gently in a silky, paprika-scented tomato sauce until everything is tender.
In Hungary this is generations-old comfort food, and the details matter: the filling is packed without gaps so the peppers hold together, and the sauce is thickened the old way, with a roux of lard and flour whisked into hot broth.
The recipe scales beautifully and reheats even better, which is why Hungarian cooks make it by the potful. Use small, thin-walled sweet peppers if you can find them — they are closest to the Hungarian originals.
Töltött Paprika Recipe
Ingredients
- For the tomato sauce:
- 1⅓ cups (10.6 oz) tomato paste
- 7 tablespoons (3.5 oz) lard
- 1 cup (4.2 oz) all-purpose flour
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 celery leaf
- 3½ cups bone broth, plus up to 2 cups more as needed
- For the stuffed peppers:
- 2¼ pounds ground pork
- 20 small sweet peppers (Hungarian if possible; about 10 bell peppers also work)
- 3½ tablespoons lard
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons black pepper
- 3 eggs
- 1¼ cups (8.8 oz) rice
Instructions
- Make the sauce: heat the lard in a saucepan, add the flour and cook until it turns the color of breadcrumbs.
- Pour in the hot bone broth and whisk in the tomato paste and salt.
- Add the celery leaf and chopped onion, and let the sauce simmer for about 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook the rice to half-done according to the package and let it cool.
- Fry the chopped onion in the lard until softened.
- In a large bowl, combine the ground pork, cooked onion, cooled rice, eggs, garlic, salt and pepper.
- Wash the peppers and remove the seeds, then fill them with the pork mixture — no gaps, but not overstuffed, or they may burst.
- Lower the stuffed peppers into the simmering sauce and cook gently until the filling is cooked through, about 30 to 40 minutes.
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