No Soggy or over cooked rice, tender peppers and a flavorful nostalgic filling make these the best stuffed peppers, that we have ever enjoyed. They cook up and smell like grandmas kitchen, your favorite diner or just a really good loving meal at home. They can be made on the stove top, in the oven or airfryer. Very Versatile, delicious and easily made fully vegan and gluten free. I share options in the recipe below.

Which pepper is best for stuffed peppers?

A medium, firm pepper. Too small and the filling can burst out, too big and the cook time is thrown off, creating either an overcooked filling or under cooked pepper.

What color pepper is best? Does the color of the pepper matter?

Green bell peppers have their place, somewhere, I’m not sure where, but not in this recipe.

On the sweetness scale, they are the least sweet and slighter bitter, compared to red, orange or yellow peppers. This of course excludes green Cubanelle peppers, poblanos, shishitos ( which are too small to stuff) which are all green, packed with amazing flavor but not useful in this recipe.

Red peppers are the sweetest and most nutrient dense of the bell peppers and best for stuffing, followed by yellow or orange peppers.

In short, seek out red peppers, for stuffing.

The Filling

The most important part of the filling is the rice. Depending on your preference and what you grew up expecting in a stuffed pepper, that will affect the type of rice used for stuffing.

I prefer paraboiled rice, it holds its shape, cooks quickly and is fairly inexpensive.

To add more flavor to the rice, it’s toasted raw before adding in the aromatics, spice and meat. Additionally to the rice, orzo is added in for more flavor and texture.

WASH YOUR RICE! This is nonnegotiable. Wash any rice you’re cooking.

Why? Washing rice does a few things, firstly it will remove some of the starch from the rice, helping it cook up fluffy versus a gooey clump. It will also help improve the flavor of the rice and lastly remove any dust or sediment in the rice that may have accumulated during processing or storing.

How to wash rice?

There are two methods of washing rice. In a sieve directly under running water or in a bowl. I use either depending on my level of lazy that day.

Sieve method:

Add the exact measure of rice planned to be used in the recipe and run it under cold water from the faucet. Use your fingers to swirl the grains under the water within the sieve, making circular motions with the sieve and your hands. Continue until water runs nearly clear.

Bowl method:

Dump rice into a bowl and fill with cold water, swirl and strain off the water several times, until the water is fairly clear.

Toasting the Rice

In a sauce pan, add equal parts neutral cooking oil and butter, heat slowly and add in well drained rice along with orzo. Toast until golden brown. This process happens quickly, monitor the heat under your saute pan and keep the rice moving in the pan. Youll hear a dense “clicking/ticking” noise from the rice, to let you know it is very close to toasted.

The Seasonings

Really simple aromatics play well with the sweet mildness of a bell peppers and beef.**

Scallions or grated onion.

Grated carrots

Parsley

Sweet Smokey Paprika

Sweet red pepper paste

Dry Onion

Garlic powder

Salt

Pepper and or red pepper flakes

Bay Leaf

**If opting for a fully vegetarian version, grate 1 small eggplant and saute until brown. Additionally adding, thyme and increasing garlic will balance out the flavors of the stuffed peppers.

Ingredients

5 medium bell peppers

For the Stuffing:

1.5lb ground beef

4 scallions roughly chopped

2 carrots, peeled and grated

2 tbsp sweet red pepper paste

1 tsp salt

1.5 tsp garlic powder

1 tbsp dried onion

1 tsp sweet paprika

3/4 cup paraboiled rice

1/4 cup orzo (omit to keep gluten free)

1tbsp neutral oil, 1 tbsp butter

Sauce:

2.5 cups marinara (homemade or jarred)

1 cup boiling water

2 small bay leaves

3 garlic cloved crushed

1/3 cup finely chopped parsley

1 tsp sugar or sweetener of your choice

Method:

Remove caps and ribs from peppers. Discard ribs and seeds, and keep the tops for later.

Salt and oil the inside and outside of the pepper before stuffing. A small pinch of salt and few swirls of oil are enough.

Arrange the bell peppers standing straight up, propped against each other in a cooking vessel that is large enough to accommodate the peppers and about 4 cups of liquid.

In a separate mixing bowl, combine, chopped scallion, grated carrots, seasonings, including sweet pepper paste, toasted rice/orzo with minced meat or eggplant.

Mix until combine and spoon into each pepper.

Stuffing Tip:

Fill each pepper halfway first and then continue filling spoon by spoon until each is filled shy of full. The filling will expand while cooking, and a little space keeps the peppers from bursting open.

Additionally, any left over filling can be rolled into little meatballs and nudged between the peppers. This recipe has almost no left over filling

Pour the sauce into the cooking vessel, and into each open pepper.

Cover each pepper with it’s top and give one last drizzle of oil plus a sprinkle of salt before covering and placing inside of a 375F oven for 40 minutes.

Uncover at the 40 minute mark, place dish on lower rack of the oven and bake until tops are browned, for another 10-15minutes.

Adjusting time for cooking.

• If you have a dish where the peppers have a little bit of space between them, you may need less time, in a dish where they are closer together you may need more time. Uncover and test the rice and meat for doneness around 30minute mark, 25 minutes if using eggplants.

• A heavy dutch oven with lid would need less time than a pan tented with foil.

• Moving the dish from the middle to the bottom rack will help thicken the sauce without burning the tops of the peppers.

• These will keep in the refrigerator for 2 days after being prepared.