Baked in tomato sauce till tender and savory, best stuffed peppers with rice, ground meat, two varieties of cheese, and Italian herbs are Kids and adults will find this simple dinner recipe appealing; it's a warm and filling meal, and even looks sophisticated enough for a gathering! Match the stuffed peppers with either a side salad, crusty bread, or fluffy buttermilk biscuits.
How should one make stuffed bell peppers?
For a basic and filling family-friendly dinner, rice cannot match good old-fashioned stuffed peppers with rice. Using lots of fresh bell peppers is a fantastic way to use them, and the adaptable recipe allows a range of taste and dietary requirements. For even more taste, replace the rice with cauliflower rice, or use another kind of cheese. Add sausage. Making this stuffed peppers recipe your own may be done in so many different ways!
The Excellent Stuffed Peppers
Over the years, I have experimented with several variations of stuffed peppers with rice, but I always return to the basic Italian dish with rice and mozzarella from my childhood. Ground beef is full protein; you could substitute ground turkey or ground Italian sausage instead, or even make them vegetarian using black beans, pinto beans, chickpeas, or white beans.
Though you can also use yellow bell peppers, orange bell peppers, or green bell peppers for this dish, I have featured sweet red bell peppers here. Simply an issue of personal taste preference. Generally speaking, the red, yellow, and orange peppers taste far sweeter than the green ones (and I find they look really lovely in the dish). Usually zesty in taste, green bell peppers go nicely with the savory meat, cheese, rice, and tomato sauce.
Does one have to cook peppers before stuffing them?
Indeed, before including the ground beef and rice stuffing, par-boiling or pre-baking the peppers is advised. Since the peppers will surely soften in the oven, you can omit this step if you like a more crisp-tender pepper. Still, giving the bell peppers a small head start in the microwave is quite simple. Just set them in a dish with water, cover loosely with a sheet of parchment paper, and cook on high for roughly three minutes.
Does one have to boil the meat before stuffing the peppers?
This dish pre-cooks the meat and the rice before stuffing the peppers. A hybrid—pre-cooked rice mixed with raw meat for the stuffing—is called for in some recipes Raw meat allows the rice to absorb some of the meat drippings. This gives fantastic taste, but it can also provide a somewhat less healthful, greasier meal. Either approach works, however here we pre-cook the ground beef to guarantee lean and thorough cooking through.
Ingredients
This is only a summary of the components you will need for a batch of ground beef and rice stuffed peppers with ground beef and rice. As always, the printed recipe box at the bottom of the post contains particular measurements and thorough step-by-step cooking directions.
- I used red bell peppers here; but, you may use any color—red, yellow, orange, green (or a mix).
- Olive oil: for cooking meat and onion.
- Ground beef: replace with bulk Italian sausage, ground turkey, or ground chicken.
- Onion: for somewhat savory, sweet taste.
- Long-grain white rice is what I use, but any type of rice is good—brown rice, wild rice, even cauliflower rice. One might also replace cooked couscous or quinoa.
- Tomato sauce harmonizes the contents.
- Worcestershire sauce gives umami, savory taste.
- Add taste to the filling using Italian seasonings, ground black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, kosher salt.
- Sugar: Just a bit to accentuate a more nuanced taste and counter tomato acidity.
- Monterey Jack cheese or mozzarella cheese gives the taste of the cheddar and ooey, gooey, melty quality. Sharp cheddar cheese is made from You are free to substitute any other kind of cheese; Colby or Pepper Jack are also excellent choices.
Cooking Stuffed Peppers Made with Rice
These classic stuffed peppers with rice are actually quite simple to make, even if they can look elegant or sophisticated! While you make the ground beef filling, pre-cook the peppers (as I advised above); then, simply stuff them and bake them in the oven.
Cook the peppers in a microwave until they start to soften—about three minutes.
Make the ground beef and rice stuffing.
Taste the peppers with salt and pepper; then, stuff the contents into them.
Drizzle olive oil on top.
Bake covered in a 350°F oven for thirty-five minutes.
Take off the cover; top with cheese; then, after ten more minutes, go back into the oven.
Accompany with chopped fresh parsley or basil. Present heated!
What goes with stuffed bell peppers?
This is a whole stand-alone dinner since it calls for vegetables, rice, and meat. Here are some decent choices to accompany the recipe for stuffed bell peppers with rice if you would want to round out the dinner with other sides:
