I’ve wanted to make stuffed bell peppers for quite some time now. I love the texture of brown rice, so I knew it was going to be my main ingredient. When I started searching around for different stuffing recipes, I didn’t quite find one that I wanted to use. I decided to just go on my own and throw together some of my favorite ingredients that I thought would go well together as a stuffing and see where it took me!
I’ve made this recipe several times now, and love it! I ended up sticking to some pretty basic ingredients for the stuffing…brown rice, roasted tomatoes, garlic, onions, bell peppers, and cheese! The resulting dish was very tasty, satisfying, and healthy. And it was surprisingly easy to make! They taste best with red, yellow, or orange bell peppers because of their sweetness, but I’ve also used green bell peppers and they were still delicious. The great thing about this dish is that you can easily prep everything ahead of time and just stick them in the oven when you are ready to eat! You can stuff the peppers and leave ALL the baking until later. Or I personally like to bake the peppers through with the stuffing and leave the mozzarella cheese step until just prior to eating.
Now that I have the process down, I’m excited to try out new stuffing combinations! What is your favorite stuffing for bell peppers?
Brown Rice Stuffed Bell Peppers
INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups brown rice , cooked
- 3 whole medium/large bell peppers , preferably red, orange, or yellow
- 1 cup sweet grape tomatoes
- 1/2 medium white onion , finely chopped
- 1/2 large bell pepper , red, yellow, or orange, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic , finely minced
- 1/4 cup fresh basil , chopped finely
- 3 tbsp vegan parmesan cheese , finely grated
- vegan mozzarella , shredded (see notes)
- olive oil
- salt/pepper
INSTRUCTIONS
To Make the Stuffing:
- In a stainless steel non-stick pan, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil on medium heat. Add the grape tomatoes and saute until the skin starts to break through, stirring frequently. Set aside once done.
- In another non-stick pan, heat 1 or 2 Tbsp. olive oil on medium heat. Add the garlic, chopped onions, and chopped bell peppers. Fry until fragrant and the onions become translucent, mixing frequently.
- Mix in the cooked brown rice and prepared grape tomatoes. Saute for an additional 5-10 minutes to combine the flavors on medium-low heat.
- Mix in the vegan parmesan cheese and chopped fresh basil.
- Add salt and pepper to taste and cook for another 5-10 minutes. In the meantime continue onto the next step.
To Assemble and Serve:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Cut the three whole bell peppers in half lengthwise (i.e. through the stem). De-seed the bell pepper and remove any white parts inside keeping the stem intact to keep the stuffing from falling out.
- Lightly grease a 9x13 glass tray.
- Completely fill each bell pepper half with the brown rice/tomato stuffing.
- Arrange the 6 bell pepper halves in the greased glass tray open side up. Bake the bell pepper halves for 30 minutes uncovered.
- Remove from the oven, top with shredded vegan mozzarella cheese, and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes until the cheese on top starts bubbling or browning.
- Remove from the oven and serve!
Ellen Zilversmit
Hi just found this and I was wondering how to adapt this to those mini bell peppers can you help me with this please
anjali
Hi there! So I think you can easily adapt it for the mini bell peppers. The filling inside is already completely cooked. So just stuff the mini peppers, and then bake them as the recipe suggestions! You will probably not need to bake them for as long because the wall of the mini bell peppers are much thinner than the regular size ones, so just keep checking the oven and take them out when you think they are ready! Should till taste wonderful.