Stuffed Bell Peppers
These stuffed bell peppers are a childhood favorite–my Mom made the very best stuffed bell peppers! I decided to make these ground beef stuffed peppers using ingredients that I had on hand and needed to use up. They were simple to make, tasted amazing, and paired nicely with our house salad.
Stuffed Bell Peppers
Ingredients:
- Brown or white rice, prepared per instructions (2 servings)
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 1/2 sweet yellow onion, diced
- 1/2 zucchini, diced
- 6 oz white or cremini mushrooms, sliced
- 3 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste
- 2 cups of marinara sauce, divided
- 4 red, yellow, or orange bell peppers (I use one of each), sliced in half lengthwise & cleaned
- 3 tbsp Parmesan cheese, shredded
How to Make Stuffed Bell Peppers
Prepare the rice in a small saucepan, per package instructions; set aside.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add 1 1/2 cups of water to a 9×13-inch baking dish.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add ground beef and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring often.
Add onion, zucchini, mushrooms & seasonings, and cook for about 5-7 minutes; add garlic and cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute.
Add prepared rice and 1 1/2 cups of marinara sauce and mix thoroughly.
Scoop meat mixture into pepper halves until they are heaping full and place into prepared baking dish. Dived the remaining marinara sauce to the top of each pepper then sprinkle the Parmesan cheese evenly over the peppers.
Bake covered for 40 minutes. Remove cover and bake for an additional 5 minutes. Enjoy.
Ingredients
- Brown or white rice prepared per instructions (2 servings)
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- ½ sweet yellow onion diced
- ½ zucchini diced
- 6 oz white or cremini mushrooms sliced
- 3 cloves of garlic chopped finely
- 1 tsp dried basil
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp onion powder
- Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste
- 2 cups of marinara sauce divided
- 4 red yellow, or orange bell peppers (I use one of each), sliced in half lengthwise & cleaned
- 3 tbsp Parmesan cheese shredded
Instructions
- Prepare the rice in a small saucepan, per package instructions; set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add 1 1/2 cups of water to a 9x13-inch baking dish.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add ground beef and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring often.
- Add onion, zucchini, mushrooms & seasonings, and cook for about 5-7 minutes; add garlic and cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute.
- Add prepared rice and 1 1/2 cups of marinara sauce and mix thoroughly.
- Scoop meat mixture into pepper halves until they are heaping full and place into prepared baking dish. Dived the remaining marinara sauce to the top of each pepper then sprinkle the Parmesan cheese evenly over the peppers.
- Bake covered for 40 minutes. Remove cover and bake for an additional 5 minutes. Enjoy.
Most children & husbands don’t like these. Change the name to “unstuffed peppers ” & try this –saute large diced pepper with meat. Then just continue cooking in the skillet. Same taste, easier to eat & no oven.
I beg to differ. I am a personal chef and all my “husbands and children” like these including my own! Pam, I have used this recipe since you posted it and it has been loved by many! Thank you!
I am making these 4 dinner tonight. Instead of chop meat I used turkey. Hope it works out!
I was happy to find this blog, since I haven’t seen very many which promote healthy recipes. I like to cook healthy meals for my family, and I wouldn’t change a thing in this recipe….except to perhaps use 1/2 lean ground beef and 1/2 ground turkey. How can I sign-up for e-mails?
Katie,
Thank you for your kind words. You can sign up for new posts to come directly to your e-mail by clicking the e-mail button on the top right hand side of the website (It says – RSS Twitter Facebook E-mail). Click e-mail and follow the directions.
Cheers,
Pam
Made this and it was Sooo good….my husband loved it! Used left over rice for rice pudding! Made 3 dinners for us with salad. Thanks.
Seen a lot of “stuffed pepper” recipes. Some require blanching or pre-cooking the pepper.. is it necessary and if so, how?
Dan,
By baking them in the water (per the instructions above), the peppers will cook and soften.
I hope this helps.
Pam
This recipe is Sooo delicious! I used turkey sausage, mozzarella cheese & chopped my own tomatoes. Sooo Italian! <3
I love stuffed peppers and these are very good. Thanks for the recipe
Barbara,
Thanks for taking the time to let me know. I’m so glad you liked them.
-Pam
Looks yummy, it would be nice to have a print button to make it easy to. Print.
George,
Click on the printable recipe link at the bottom of the page. Once it comes up, push the buttons Ctrl and P at the same time, it will bring up an option to print the recipe. I hope this helps.
Sorry about that. This is a recipe from years ago when I first started blogging and there weren’t a lot of options for printable recipes yet.
-Pam