Growing up, I remember eating these exact stuffed peppers with ground beef and rice at least once a month. Although back then, my mom only used green peppers. I assume that the cost of red, orange, and yellow peppers were too expensive for our families budget that or this is the way my mom’s mom aka my grandma made it and my mom never steered from the recipe. I don’t think my mom started making the tri-color variety until I was in high school.
This is one of those recipes that I make a few times each year. It’s a tried and true recipe that goes into my cooking rotation; although my cooking rotation is not like the average persons rotation since I practically cook a new recipe every night! That’s not a lie–even when I have company over I almost always try a new recipe. We do not get bored with dinner in our home!
On this particular evening that I cooked the stuffed peppers it was extra special. You see, the green peppers pictured were grown from our garden. I didn’t want to just dice them up and have them blended into another dish–I wanted them to be the star of our dish. So, I gave them the respect and attention that they deserved and stuffed them with lean ground beef, rice, zucchini, and tomato sauce and during the last few minutes of baking I topped them off with shredded mozzarella cheese.
Stuffed Peppers with Ground Beef and Rice
Equipment
- Glass Baking Dish
- Frying Pan
Ingredients
- 6 Bell peppers
- 1 lb Lean ground beef
- ¼ cup Onion diced
- 2 Garlic cloves
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt
- ⅛ tsp Black Pepper
- ½ tsp Garlic Powder
- 2 cups Leftover white rice
- 1 *Zucchini shredded
- 4 cups Tomato sauce
- 1 tbsp Italian Seasoning
- ½ cup Shredded mozzarella divided
Instructions
- Fill a large stock pot with water and bring to a boil.
- While the water is heating begin cleaning and hollowing out the bell peppers. Once the water is to a boil carefully place each bell pepper in the boiling water and boil for 10 minutes. *You want your peppers to be firm not mushy. Remove the peppers from the boiling pot of water and rinse under cold water. Set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- In a large skillet begin browning the lean ground beef on medium heat (for about 5 minutes). Half way through the browning process as your breaking up the bits of ground beef add the diced onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
- Once the ground beef is cooked through turn off the heat. Add the rice, shredded zucchini (if using) and 3 cups of tomato sauce, and Italian seasoning. Mix well until incorporated.
- Carefully begin spooning the rice/beef mixture into each of the bell peppers until the pepper is packed full. *You may have filling leftover depending on how large your peppers are. Reserve for serving once peppers are done.
- Add 1 cup of water to the baking dish.
- Tent a piece of aluminum foil over the baking dish and bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove the peppers from the oven. Add more sauce on top and sprinkle on the shredded mozzarella cheese. Bake uncovered for 5 minutes or until cheese has melted.
- Remove from oven, garnish with fresh minced parsley and additional sauce if needed, and serve immediately.
Notes
- *Zucchini - I love to added shredded zucchini to my stuffed peppers. It blends into the peppers and a great way to add a hidden veggie in for the family (specifically kids who are picky eaters).
- Two methods to pre-cooking the bell peppers (I prefer the boiling method as listed in my recipe above). If you don't want to dirty another pot you can place the peppers cut-side face down in the same baking dish you will bake them in with 1 cup of water. Tightly cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes while you make the filling.
I make my peppers almost same, but I cut only some of meaty part of extra thick bacon, and add it to meat mixture, I take the leftover part of bacon and add to tomato cooking broth–then I throw that whole piece out/throw away when serving. I make these in oven or on stove top. We prefer stove top. We also do not use the cheese.My family loves this & bacon adds to flavor.This is something my grandmother did.
Woah I love the idea of infusing the peppers with bacon flavoring!
YUM! I love stuffed peppers & those pics have just triggered a serious craving… 🙂
Michelle, I’m glad I could trigger instant cravings! That’s what I aspire to achieve on a daily basis! Thanks for stopping by!
I also recently started using the red and yellow peppers – boy, are they sweet! I never used zucchini – will try that next time. Otherwise, it’s just how I do stuffed peppers, too.
Lee–I had extra zucchini in the fridge and wanted to use it up PLUS I wanted to have more than just a pepper as a veggie for dinner, so I decided to chop up the zucchini! It was awesome, and didn’t distract from the traditional pepper!
My husband loves stuffed peppers, so I am always looking for new recipes! I’m jealous that you are able to use ones from your own garden!
Thanks Jessica for the kind comments! I have 6 more peppers that are mid-size right now. As soon as they get a bit larger they will most likely be turned into stuffed peppers once again!
Katie, my mom makes stuff peppers often too. She uses colorful pepers, but she grows them. While living in Boston, I remember seeing her hunt for them @ local stores. This dish brings back so much wonderful memories, thanks Katie!
Very cool, Wanda. Thanks for sharing the story! Our peppers are suppose to be red, but all we’ve yielded is green–some how I don’t think the red were ever planted! lol.