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By Rachael | Updated on
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Hearty Stuffed Peppers
Peppers loaded with ground beef, kielbasa, and lots of fantastic veggies for a healthy, quick, easy, and anytime meal. Prep ahead and freeze for even greater ease.
This easy stuffed bell pepper recipe is delicious. Simple ingredients stuffed into bell peppers and baked to perfection. Easily made ahead of time and frozen for a convenient meal.
A modern take on a classic pioneer woman stuffed pepper
Hearty Stuffed Peppers: When I was growing up, my parents used to make stuffed peppers. They were always so tasty, and I remember being the only one of us kids that liked them. Because of that, I didn’t really ever make them for my own family. And I was totally missing out.
A stuffed pepper is basically a really great vehicle for a yummy filling. And it is so easy to customize to your preference, or what you have in your fridge, or what is seasonal. It is also easy to make it gluten free, and able to meet many dietary restrictions.
Stuffed Peppers as a ready-to-go healthy meal
These Hearty Stuffed Peppers are an excellent way to get extra veggies into your diet, and to have something healthy on hand. I simply prepare them ahead of time, and freeze. Then pull out the day I want to use them, let them thaw, and bake.
This means too that if my kids don’t want a Hearty Stuffed Pepper they can have a PB & J and I can still have a great tasting, hot meal for one. Without a huge mess.
I love being able to just pull one hearty stuffed pepper out and bake it up. The mess is minimal and I don’t have to think about what I am going to make. That is always a plus for me on a busy day.
Tips for making the best stuffed peppers
- Cook the brown rice thoroughly. You don’t want it to be crunchy in the peppers.
- Drain the grease from the ground beef or you food will be oily, and not nearly as healthy.
- Put the cheese on at the beginning and cover with foil while baking or add it in the last ten minutes of baking.
- Look for peppers who have a relatively flat bottom so they will stand up when filled. Otherwise put them in a baking dish with sides so they can be propped up.
How to make Easy Hearty Stuffed Peppers
- Step one: Start your rice. Brown rice takes a while to cook, so I always get it started before washing and dicing the rest. I like to use my handy rice cooker.
- Step two: Get your peppers ready. I like to use the tops I cut off in other things, waste not want not, so I always dice the tops up, and use them in omelets, etc. the next day, or in other meals if I am doing a big cooking day. Or you can chop them up and add them to the filling mixture.
- Step three: Get it all cooking! Cook your sausage and veggies and mix them into the rice.
- Step four: Let cool, then mix in cheese
- Step Five: Stuff, and top! (Sometimes I like to wait to add the cheese to the end of the baking period so that it doesn’t get to browned like it is in the pictures. It’s up to you.
- Step six: Freeze or bake and enjoy!
More recipes that you might enjoy:
- Sheet Pan Beef and Broccoli
- Easy Mongolian Beef
- BBQ Beef Mini Taco Cups
- Honey Balsamic Marinade Beef Kabobs
- Italian Beef Stew (Slow Cooker)
Hearty Stuffed Peppers Recipe
Hearty stuffed peppers, easy to freeze or eat fresh.
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Course: Dinner
Cuisine: American
Keyword: ground beef, rice, stuffed peppers recipe
Prep Time: 25 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes minutes
Total Time: 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes
Servings: 6
Calories: 539kcal
Author: Rachael
Ingredients
- 2.5 cups cooked brown rice
- 1 Tbs olive oil
- 1/2 cup mushrooms diced
- 1/2 cup onions diced
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp garlic salt
- 1 lb ground beef turkey, or chicken
- 1 cup zucchini chopped
- 1/2 cup sweet peppers chopped
- 1 cup Kielbasa or sausage of choice
- 1 cup cheese of choice mozzarella, fontina, blend
- 6 green bell peppers
- 1 cup cheddar cheese
Instructions
Prepare the brown rice and set aside. You can use a Rice Cooker to make this even easier.
Saute the mushrooms and onions in olive oil.
When the onions are translucent, add the cumin, paprika, and garlic salt.
Add the ground beef,turkey, or chicken to the pan.
Add the chopped zucchini and the chopped sweet peppers.
When ground beef and veggies are done cooking, add in cooked rice, and Kielbasa
Let cool, mix in cheese of choice.
While the mixture is cooling wash and cut tops off 6 green bell peppers.
Stuff the green peppers with mixture.
Top with cheddar cheese.
If freezing, place the peppers in your freezer.
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 mins.
(If from frozen, thaw in fridge first)
Notes
Replace meat options with whatever your favorites are if you do not like beef or sausage. Chicken works well too!
You may want to add some salt to the inside of the green peppers before stuffing with filling.
During cooking the cheddar cheese will become very crispy. If you want a less crispy cheese cover the peppers with foil of add the cheese for the last 10 minutes of cooking.
Nutrition
Calories: 539kcal | Carbohydrates: 28g | Protein: 28g | Fat: 34g | Saturated Fat: 15g | Cholesterol: 103mg | Sodium: 770mg | Potassium: 688mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 1445IU | Vitamin C: 116.4mg | Calcium: 315mg | Iron: 3.2mg
Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.
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Comments
I used to buy the frozen stuffed peppers all the time for lunch. These look SO MUCH better! I'm pinning this for sure
Reply
Rachael says
Thank you! I hope you love them as much as we do.
Reply
Chris Richardson says
The nutritional information cannot be correct. Too many calories and fat!
Reply
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Welcome, I'm Rachael!
I’m a mom of 4 great kids that keep me super busy.
My philosophy is cooking has to be easy, tasty, kid approved, and fit between homework, piano practice, soccer, and the MOUNTAINS of laundry in my life!Read More Work With Me
