These tender stuffed bell peppers are filled with cheese, Spanish beef, and rice, topped with even more cheese. A classic comfort food favorite!
This stuffed bell pepper recipe is adapted from my mama’s recipe. She made these a few times when I was growing up. She didn’t make it often because my daddy didn’t really care for stuffed peppers. Although he’d eat them and just about anything, she sat before him. He didn’t like to waste food and always cleaned up his plate.
I didn’t like stuffed bell peppers, but I enjoyed the delicious stuffing she put inside the peppers. Over the years, I fell in love with bell peppers and adapted my mother’s recipe by adding more seasoning and gooey cheese.
The Best Bell Peppers For Taste And Stuffing
The most common colors are green, yellow, orange, and red bell peppers. However, we found pale yellow, white, and purple bell peppers a few summers ago at our favorite farmers’ market. They are quite unusual looking, but I think they are just as tasty as the rest of the bell pepper varieties.
Green peppers are not as sweet and slightly more bitter than yellow and orange peppers because they are not fully ripened except for the Permagreen variety, which maintains its green color when fully ripened.
Red-ripened peppers are the sweetest because they can ripen fully on the plant in the sunshine.
A bell pepper’s taste can also be affected by the growing conditions and if they are allowed to ripen after harvest in storage.
Read more: [Bell Pepper Facts and Tips]
Ingredients You’ll Need To Make This Stuffed Bell Pepper Recipe
Rice: Any variety of cooked rice (brown rice, wild rice) will work, but I prefer long-grain white rice. Use leftover rice if you have some. You can also substitute the rice with cooked quinoa or couscous.
Meat: ground chuck will give you the most flavor. You could also substitute with lean ground beef, ground chicken, or ground turkey if you what healthier options.
Onion: yellow or white chopped to create a base of flavor.
Taco Seasoning: This is an addition to mama’s recipe. I make my own with chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes, Mexican oregano, sweet paprika, cumin, salt, and pepper using THIS RECIPE.
Tomato Sauce: This is what brings the stuffing mixture together. If you are watching your sodium, use no-salt options.
Water: water helps thin out the sauce and gives you time to simmer the stuffing mixture without becoming too thick.
Bell Peppers: Use whatever variety you like best. Check the bottom of the pepper before you buy it. Try to select peppers with flat bottoms to stand up better when stuffed.
Cheese: use any variety of cheese you like. I prefer extra-sharp cheddar cheese for stuffing and topping. Sometimes I’ll lay a slice of American cheese on top just because it melts so well. The cheese is optional.
How To Make Stuffed Bell Peppers With Spanish Beef
Step #1 Prepare the rice
Make the rice according to package instructions and set it aside.
Step #2 Prepare the Stuffing Mixture
Meanwhile, in a Dutch oven, brown hamburger with chopped onions, herbs, and spices, until cooked through, over medium-high heat. Drain off any excess grease from the hamburger mixture, return to the heat and add tomato sauce, water, and rice to the hamburger mixture. Simmer over low heat until warmed through, taste and season with salt and pepper, if needed. – Be careful to stir often to ensure the rice does not stick.
Step #3 Prepare the Peppers for Stuffing
Blanching (boiling) the peppers helps them cook more evenly, improving the texture and appearance of the pepper. It also removes any bitterness the pepper may have. Use the following steps to blanch the peppers before stuffing them.
- Bring a pot of water with enough water inside to submerge the peppers.
- Cut the tops off the peppers as if you were carving into a pumpkin. Scoop out seeds and membranes and discard. Carefully place the prepared peppers into the boiling water. Boil for approximately 5 minutes. – Make sure they are completely submerged; they tend to float if the water does not enter the pepper cavity.
- Carefully remove the peppers from the water and allow them to drain.
Step #4 Stuff the Peppers
Place some cheese into the bottom of each pepper, if desired. Ladle the stuffing mixture into the peppers and place them inside a Dutch oven with a lid or deep baking dish.
Step #5 Bake the Stuffed Peppers & Serve
Cover with the lid or foil and place into the preheated oven. Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes or until the peppers are tender.
If desired, top with cheese and melt during the last five minutes of baking.
Allow them to cool for about 10 minutes before serving.
Recipe Tips
- If the peppers don’t stand up, you can take a thin slice off the bottom to even the pepper up. You can also wad up foil rings and sit the peppers down inside so they do not spill over.
- This recipe makes enough stuffing for about six or more peppers, depending on the size. David and I cannot possibly eat that many peppers at one time, so I freeze the extra stuffing. To freeze the stuffing, cool and freeze extra stuffing for up to 6 months, sealed tightly in a freezer bag or airtight container.
Recipe FAQs
Yes! Prepare the peppers, and allow them to cool. Wrap them tightly with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and place them in the refrigerator for 2-3 days before baking. You could also prepare them and freeze them for up to 3 months. Bake from frozen at 350 for 45 minutes, then top with cheese and bake for 5 minutes.
No, but boiling the peppers helps them cook more evenly, improving the texture and appearance of the pepper. It also removes any bitterness the pepper may have.
Stuffed bell peppers warm really well in the microwave. The moist steam within the container keeps the rice stuffing from drying out.
So, do you like peppers? I hope this recipe will win you over.
Comment below to tell me what you think!
Stuffed Bell Peppers With Spanish Beef
Ingredients
- 1 cup rice
- 1 pound ground hamburger chuck
- 1 small onion chopped
- 2 tablespoons Taco Seasoning
- 15 ounces canned tomato sauce
- 15 ounces water
- 6 bell peppers
- 2 cups extra-sharp cheddar cheese for stuffing and topping (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Prepare rice according to package instructions and set aside.
- Meanwhile, in a Dutch oven, brown hamburger with chopped onions and herbs and spices, until cooked through, over medium-high heat. Drain off any excess grease from the hamburger mixture, return to the heat and add tomato sauce, water, and rice to the hamburger mixture. Simmer over low heat, until warmed through, taste and season with salt and pepper, if needed. – Be careful to stir often to ensure the rice does not stick.
- Bring a pot of water, with enough water inside to submerge the peppers. Cut the tops off the peppers, as if you were carving into a pumpkin. Scoop out seeds and membranes and discard. Carefully place the prepared peppers into the boiling water. Boil for approximately 5 minutes. – Make sure they are completely submerged, they tend to float if the water does not enter the cavity of the pepper.
- Carefully remove the peppers from the water and allow them to drain.
- Divide half to the cheese (if using) and place some cheese into the bottom of each pepper. Ladle the stuffing mixture into the peppers and place them inside a Dutch oven with a lid or deep baking dish. Cover with the lid or foil and place into the preheated oven. Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes or until the peppers are tender. Top each pepper with the remaining cheese (if using) and melt during the last five minutes of baking.
- Allow them to cool about 10 minutes before serving.
Colleen says
I may be a girl but I still hate peppers! I die a little each time I eat them! As for stuffing anything with rice, I’m out on that one too. The cheese looks super yummy though. I will always eat cheese! I’d be the one scraping it off the top and leaving everything else behind!
The Mountain Kitchen says
Well you can have all the cheese you want girl!! 😀
Patrons of the Pit says
Well, not to throw a kink in your theory, but I rather fancy the bell peppers too, even the green ones. But I see your logic.
Hows life on the mountain been lately? Your photography has definitely surged a few notches in the last year. Really enjoy the photos. And your deck of course. Oh how many times I’ve breached the tenth commandment because of your deck.
Anyways, talk to you soon, and hey to David!
The Mountain Kitchen says
Mountain Life has been pretty good! My hydrangeas are if full bloom for the first time ever (5 years), Jose Jalapeno on Zee Deck is thriving after banishment to the basement this past winter and we are supposed to be getting a brand new deck that’s bigger and better with a screen porch included, once the red tape dispenser runs out… Stay tuned there will be more breaching…lol! Hope your pit is smoking and your meat filled with smoke rings!
Antonia says
I love the picture of the peppers with the mountain view in the background! Love this recipe!
The Mountain Kitchen says
Hi Antonia! Thank you so much. Hope you are doing well!
Marisa's Italian Kitchen says
These are drool worthy, I adore stuffed peppers!! 🙂
The Mountain Kitchen says
Thanks Marisa. Me too! 🙂
FrugalHausfrau says
Oh gosh these sound so good with the spices and the cheese! I don’t know why but I’ve only ever used a little parmesan on top – I can see I have to remedy that! I love the idea of freezing half the stuffing, too. Since the rice almost always has to be cooked first, it would be a great shortcut to just pull the stuffing out ready to go!
Mollie
The Mountain Kitchen says
Hi Mollie! Thanks. You have to try the peppers with cheddar, they are delicious!
Sarah 'n Spice says
I think you’re so right on the men not liking peppers thing! I’ll take all of these myself ?
The Mountain Kitchen says
Haha! Thanks Sarah!
Kelly Mahan says
What an interest recipe! I never made stuffed veggies before, so I’m really curious to try it. Thank you for the recipe, can’t wait to try it!
The Mountain Kitchen says
Hi Kelly! Thank you for stopping by. I hope you will enjoy this recipe. 🙂
Lynntucky says
This was awesome! Tried it last night. We both loved it. I adjusted it though. I had a package of Knorr Fiesta Sides Spanish Rice. It would be so bland just adding ground beef to it. I did everything called for in your recipe except I only used 1/2 tsp. of cumin. Not crazy about it. When the beef was done I mixed the already prepared Spanish Rice. It added a nice blend to the recipe. Yummy!
The Mountain Kitchen says
Hi! So happy you liked this recipe and made it your own. Thank you for the very kind review!
Rick says
Maybe, relabelling the recipe as Mexican or Tex-Mex stuffed Bell peppers would be more apt and appreciated by all cultures concerned.
As the son of a Spanish mother from Spain and being an expatriated-Gringo living in Spain for 25 years now… Well, I have to tell you that the term “Spanish” you’re using to describe the stuffed pepper recipe is, well to put it bluntly, WAY OFF. Spanish Cuisine, which is any number of different regional cuisines from Spain, almost never has any hot peppers. Spaniards think that peppercinis are hot.. Cumin is rare left over spice coming from Moorish and Jewish recipes and mostly in micro dosages, Crushed Red pepper Nope, Chili powder NO Way José, Hamburger meet in Spain would be ground pork, Cheddar Cheese in England etc etc… For many years many Americans seem to have a notion that Spanish is South of the border… Yes, many Spaniards immigrated there in the last 500 years and melded with the indigenous population. Like the States many of us including myself have some Cherokee or similar type of indigenous blood in our background. You’d never call yourself by your partitial cultural heritage… You’re American…
Your recipe here is basically “Mexican” or more accurately “Tex-Mex” predominantly by cooking style, spices and herbs. The recipe is not Spanish in the least bit sorry to say.
You can liken it to this analogy… Think of someone making some recipe up and calling Japanese Sushi. Whereas, all they have done is to place some canned fish on top of a rice cake and decide that it’s Japanese….(???) Although, the author might state that it’s Sushi or Japanese, well that doesn’t make it so.
The Mountain Kitchen says
Thanks for the enlightenment. I apologize for my ignorance.
Laura C says
Rick, there’s nothing “Mexican” about this recipe. It’s strictly an American fusion.. TexMex is more appropriate. For American tastes, it’s delicious. Elsewhere, not so. The so called ‘taco seasoning’ is also an American invention, as Mexican as Chop Suey is authentic Chinese. In Texas, cumin is king used by the shovelful, not so south of the border. It’s not their fault since it’s a stereotype commercialized by American food companies.
Thank you for your recipes, I’m sure they are delicious and the view outstanding.
Roberta says
I improvised a bit, well a lot, but it worked well. I used what I had at home. I didn’t blanche the peppers, just too lazy. I used Spanish rice and added a preseasoned ground beef mixture to it. l sautéed about 8 garlic cloves and added it to the mixture. I used enchilada sauce and shredded sharp white cheddar in the mix. Topped with mozzarella and extra sauce.
The taste test- Ya, should have pre boiled the peppers. 8.5/ 10 Not bad for a first timer!