Swedish Kåldolmar-Style Stuffed Peppers

About This Recipe

Kåldolmar, cabbage rolls stuffed with a seasoned beef and rice filling, are a Swedish staple traced back to the 18th century, when King Karl XII brought the concept home from his exile in the Ottoman Empire and Swedish cooks adapted it with local cabbage and allspice. This recipe keeps that same filling — beef, rice, onion and a generous hit of allspice — but stuffs it into bell peppers instead of cabbage leaves, which cuts the prep time significantly while keeping the flavor unmistakably kåldolmar. The technique that carries the dish is partially cooking the rice and browning the meat before stuffing, since raw rice packed into a pepper won't fully cook through in the time it takes the pepper itself to soften. The peppers are then baked covered in a light tomato-cream sauce until tender but still holding their shape, finished uncovered for a few minutes to color the tops. As with the cabbage version, the traditional Swedish way to eat this is with a spoonful of tart lingonberry preserves on the side, which cuts through the richness of the meat and cream exactly the way it does with the classic kåldolmar. It's a genuinely Swedish flavor profile in a faster, weeknight-friendly shape.

Ingredients

Serves 6

• 6bell peppers(tops cut off and seeded)
• 500 gground beef
• 0.75 cuplong-grain rice(parboiled 10 minutes and drained)
• 1yellow onion(finely diced)
• 1 largeegg
• 0.75 tspground allspice
• 1 tspfine sea salt
• 0.5 tspblack pepper
• 2 tbspgolden syrup or brown sugar
• 1 cupcrushed tomatoes
• 0.5 cupheavy cream
• 0.5 cupbeef stock
• 0.5 cuplingonberry preserves(for serving)

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the filling

   In a large bowl, combine ground beef, parboiled rice, onion, egg, allspice, salt, pepper and syrup. Mix gently with your hands until just combined.

   Don't overmix the filling — working it too much makes the finished stuffing dense instead of tender.

2. 2

   Stuff the peppers

   Pack the filling into the hollowed peppers, mounding slightly at the top, and stand them upright in a baking dish just large enough to hold them snugly.

3. 3

   Make the sauce

   Whisk together crushed tomatoes, cream and beef stock. Pour around the base of the peppers, filling the dish about a third of the way up the sides.

4. 4

   Bake covered

   Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake at 180°C (350°F) for 35 minutes, until the peppers are tender and the filling is cooked through.

5. 5

   Finish uncovered

   Remove the foil and bake 10 more minutes until the tops are lightly browned. Baste with the pan sauce halfway through.

6. 6

   Serve

   Spoon extra sauce over each pepper and serve with a spoonful of lingonberry preserves on the side.

Variations

• •

  Classic cabbage version: use the same filling to stuff blanched cabbage leaves instead of peppers, rolling and baking in the same sauce.

• •

  Pork blend: use half ground pork, half ground beef for a filling closer to traditional Swedish home cooking.

• •

  Cream-free: skip the cream and use extra beef stock for a lighter tomato sauce.

Storage

Refrigerate in the baking dish or an airtight container for up to 4 days. Reheat covered in a 160°C (325°F) oven until warmed through, about 20 minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions