This stuffed peppers recipe is one of my go to recipes every summer when I have lots of peppers, or in the winter when I need to use up peppers. It is such a comfort food, it has rice and onions and is drenched in a flavorful tomato sauce. I’ll also show you how I make it so my whole family enjoys it even the kids who don’t like peppers. Yet.
What you will need for the meat filling:
- ground beef
- cooked rice
- tomato juice
- onion
- salt
- pepper
- thyme
- garlic powder
- splash of tomato juice
For the sauce
- tomato juice
- milk
- rosemary
- basil
- pepper
- honey
- flour
And then you need peppers, obviously, and basil for garnishing {optional but recommended}.
Two things you need to prep before mixing the recipe:
- cook the rice
- cut, deseed and steam/cook the peppers
Lovely if you have leftover rice you can throw in here, amount doesn’t matter. For the sake of having a recipe, I’m going to say you need 2 cups. This is a large recipe. It was enough for lunch the next day for my family, so adjust accordingly. It’s easy to just cut all ingredients in half.
And then, my tomato soup is also homemade, but if you’re using a storebought condensed version, mix it according to directions on the can before using.
You can immerse the peppers in water and cook them for 5 minutes to soften them or you can steam them with a lid on. You can skip this step but the pepper won’t be as tender, which some people might enjoy a crisper pepper.
Mix the rice, ground beef, onion, splash of tomato jucie and seasonings together. Stuff your peppers and arrange them into a baking dish. If you have kids that would turn their nose up at the thought of having to eat a whole pepper, just form meatballs and bake them the same way you will the peppers.
Next you want to mix your tomato sauce. I used homemade canned tomato soup, to which I added milk, flour, basil, rosemary, honey, salt and pepper. Then you pour that all over your stuffed peppers (and meatballs if you have those). The sauce will thicken as it bakes. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes to an hour.
Garnishing these stuffed peppers with chopped fresh basil not only helps their visual appeal but the basil is AMAZING with tomato-y dishes.
I serve these stuffed peppers with:
- garlic bread
- green beans
Scoop into plate and drench with the tomato sauce from the pan. Serving these with garlic bread is great cause the tomato sauce is so good it’s just ideal to have a bread to wipe the plate clean.
If you try this recipe, I hope you’ll let me know in the comments what you thought, and also if you tried the kid hack 🙂
Here are more yummy dinner ideas using ground beef:
lightened up bacon cheeseburger soup
pin for later
Stuffed Peppers
Equipment
- 1 Pot
- 1 Casserole dish
- 1 Knife
- 1 Mixing bowl
Ingredients
- peppers
- 2 lbs hamburger
- 2 cups rice cooked
- 1 small onion chopped
- 1/4 cup tomato juice
- 1 tbls salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tbsp basil
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp garlic powder
tomato sauce
- 3 cups tomato juice
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 tsp rosemary
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbls honey
- 2 tbsp flour
fresh basil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Prepare rice as package instructs.
- (You need 1 cup precooked to make 2 cups cooked rice.)
- Cut your bell peppers in half and clean out the insides.
- Put them into a pot of water and cook them for 5-8 minutes.
- Arrange them in a casserole dish.
- Chop an onion into fine pieces.
- Combine cooked rice, ground uncooked beef, onion, 1/4 cup tomato juice. salt, pepper, thyme, garlic powder.
- Fill peppers with mixture, and/or make meatballs and arrange into casserole dish.
- In a separate bowl mix all the tomato sauce ingredients, whisk the flour in until there are no clumps, and pour over stuffed peppers.
- Bake for 50 minutes.
- Baste peppers with the sauce every 15 minutes if so desired.
- Top with fresh chopped basil, serve with garlic bread or dinner rolls.
Notes
- This recipe works great with any color pepper, so use what you have on hand—especially garden extras or winter leftovers.
- Leftovers reheat beautifully and taste even better the next day.
Such a great way to serve peppers!