Hungarian stuffed peppers (töltött paprika)

Töltött paprika — Hungarian stuffed peppers — is grandmother food 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 and the whole house smells like Sunday.

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

Prep time: 20 minutes · Cook time: about 1 hour · Total: 1 hour 20 minutes · Servings: 8 · Calories: ~364 per serving

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

1. Make the sauce: heat the lard in a saucepan, add the flour and cook until it turns the color of breadcrumbs.
2. Pour in the hot bone broth and whisk in the tomato paste and salt.
3. Add the celery leaf and chopped onion, and let the sauce simmer for about 30 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, cook the rice to half-done according to the package and let it cool.
5. Fry the chopped onion in the lard until softened.
6. In a large bowl, combine the ground pork, cooked onion, cooled rice, eggs, garlic, salt and pepper.
7. Wash the peppers and remove the seeds, then fill them with the pork mixture — no gaps, but not overstuffed, or they may burst.
8. Lower the stuffed peppers into the simmering sauce and cook gently until the filling is cooked through, about 30 to 40 minutes.

Recipe Notes

• Ground beef or turkey substitute cleanly for the pork.
• Butter or olive oil can replace the lard — the flavor shifts, but it works.
• Half-cooked quinoa is a nutty alternative to the rice.
• Diced carrots, peas, corn or spinach can be worked into the filling.
• Any leftover filling can be rolled into meatballs and simmered right in the sauce — a Hungarian tradition.