Stuffed Pepper Casserole
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An Easy Stuffed Pepper Casserole Recipe that is healthy and delicious! This is a simple dinner that is made in one pan in under an hour!
If you need a quick, healthy dinner that’s made in one pot – look no further than this Stuffed Pepper Casserole!
Unlike other casseroles made with canned soups and are super high in fat, this casserole is loaded with protein, vegetables and healthy carbs. Plus- it’s made in one pot so it makes for an easy clean up!
There are only 10 ingredients (most pantry staples) and some spices needed for this delicious gluten-free casserole that can be on your table in less than an hour!
We love stuffed bell peppers and wanted to take those delicious flavors and put them in a casserole. You are going to love it!
If you like stuffed peppers as much as we do, you need to try our Deconstructed Pepper Skillet or Taco Stuffed Peppers.
liz’s tips for stuffed pepper casserole
- Use freshly shredded cheese! The preshredded cheese has anti-caking agents on the cheese that prevent it from melting properly.
- Bake, then individually portion the leftovers for easy meal prep!
Ingredients
This is our favorite dutch oven, pictured below!
Substitutions
What are the best peppers for this recipe? Bell peppers are the best peppers for this recipe. Any color will work. Red, orange and yellow are all sweeter, but green bell peppers have a more mild flavor.
Ground Beef: You can substitute ground beef with ground turkey or ground chicken, it will not be as flavorful, but it will work.
Tomato Sauce/Petite Diced Tomatoes: We wouldn’t recommend omitting tomato sauce or petite diced tomatoes. Both are necessary for the recipe. Regular diced tomatoes will work, we just prefer the smaller ones.
Minute Rice: If you don’t have minute rice, you can use brown rice. Use 2 cups cooked brown rice and reduce the amount of beef broth to only a 1/2 cup. We have not tried regular cooked or raw white rice and wouldn’t recommend it. We do not recommend swapping the rice with cauliflower rice. If you need a grain free recipe try our Whole30 Stuffed Peppers.
Beef Broth: Broth, bone broth, and stock can all be used interchangeably in recipes. You can use chicken broth, beef broth, or vegetable broth in this recipe/interchangeably.
Mozzarella Cheese: Freshly grated mozzarella is best. Pre-shredded cheeses can have additives that prevent them from melting well.
Low Salt: If you need lower sodium, omit salt from the recipe. Use low or no salt beef broth and tomatoes.
Extra Vegetables: You can add more veggies to this dish. I think raw or frozen green beans would be a nice addition, diced carrots or mushrooms would be great as well!
Stuffed Peppers: If you’re looking for a regular stuffed pepper recipe, check out our Classic Stuffed Peppers, Unstuffed Peppers, or Stuffed Pepper Soup.
Dairy Free: To make this recipe dairy free, omit the cheese or use dairy free cheese.
How to Make Stuffed Pepper Casserole
- Sauté garlic, onion, peppers, and beef in olive oil for 10 minutes.
- Pour in the tomato sauce, tomatoes, salt, black pepper, oregano, basil, rice, and beef broth. Stir to combine.
- Cover with an oven safe lid or aluminum foil and bake at 375° for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes remove the cover and add cheese. Bake for another 10 minutes.
- By this point all of the liquid should also be soaked up by the rice and you are ready to serve and enjoy!
Do you have to pre-cook the meat for the stuffed pepper casserole recipe? Yes, you need to pre-cook the meat for the stuffed pepper casserole. Ground meat should always be browned before being added to a recipe for food safety. In addition to killing any bacteria, browning meat adds a ton of flavor to a dish.
How Long Do You Bake Stuffed Pepper Casserole? Stuffed pepper casserole should be baked at 375 for 20-30 minutes.
How do you know when bell pepper casserole is done? You’ll know that stuffed pepper casserole is done when the rice is fully cooked and the broth has been absorbed.
How to serve
This stuffed pepper casserole is a complete meal in itself! You can serve more veggies on the side. Here are some of our favorite veggie side dishes:
How to store
Refrigerator: This stuffed pepper casserole will last in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
Freezing: We don’t recommend putting stuffed pepper casserole in the freezer. We tried it and the rice and peppers got very soggy/mushy, so we wouldn’t recommend it.
Make Ahead: You can make this stuffed pepper casserole ahead of time. We would recommend completely cooking it, letting it cool, and then reheating it when ready to eat. We don’t recommend mixing together the ingredients ahead of time and letting them sit overnight before baking as the rice can absorb the broth and create an odd texture.
How to reheat Unstuffed Pepper Casserole
The best way to reheat stuffed pepper casserole is in the microwave for about 1-2 minutes. You can also sauté it in a pan on the stove until warmed through.
Other healthy casserole recipes:
Looking for other easy meals? Check out these 40+ Healthy Dinner Recipes or 30+ Ground Beef and Rice Recipes. Click here to grab our free healthy 30 minute dinners cookbook. Here are some of our other healthy casserole recipes that we think you would love:
Stuffed Pepper Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 cup onion diced (1 small onion)
- 1 tablespoon fresh garlic minced (4 cloves)
- 3 cups diced bell peppers 2-3 bell peppers-any color
- 1 lb lean ground beef 90-93%
- 8 oz canned tomato sauce
- 14.5 ounces petite diced tomatoes
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 2 cups white minute rice uncooked
- 2 cups beef broth low or no salt
- ½ cup part skim mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F
- In a 12 inch ovenproof skillet or dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add in garlic, onion, peppers and beef.
- Sauté for 10 minutes or until the beef is browned and the peppers and onions are softened.
- Pour in the tomato sauce, tomatoes, salt, pepper, oregano, basil, parsley, rice and beef broth. Stir to combine.
- Cover the pan with aluminum foil. If you don’t have an ovenproof skillet this is the time to transfer to a casserole dish, you can cover with a lid or foil.
- Cover and bake at 375 for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes remove the cover and add cheese. Bake for another 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and starting to brown.
- By this point all of the liquid should also be soaked up by the rice and you are ready to serve and enjoy!
I made this last night. When I pulled it out of the oven I wished I had invited a few friends over to eat! It was beautiful! And it was delicious too.
I love meal prep and I found this recipe to be a lot of fun. I will make it again!
I bought a bag of mini bell peppers for our NYE gathering and had a bunch left over. I sliced them thin and added all the green bell pepper I had on had hand. The casserole was colorful and tasty. Next time I make it, I plan to use Rotel diced tomatoes with green chilies instead of plain diced tomatoes and top with cheddar cheese or a cheddar cheese blend. I eat gluten free meals and this is both healthy and delicious. I used Minute Brown Rice for extra fiber, too.
Can I freeze this then thaw and cook?
No, I wouldn’t do that. Cook it and then freeze and reheat.
Made this recipe for the first time last
week! Absolutely delicious and so simple! I added some carrots and celery to it as well and it stretched the recipe enough for me
to share some with a friend got a text
that evening saying they loved it and ate the whole pan!
Yummy recipe! I’ve made this at least 4 times already and my 11 month old loves it too. I don’t have minute rice in my pantry so I used slightly undercooked white rice to the dish to cook all the way when combined with the rest of the ingredients. It soaks up the moisture and turns out great 😁
Great recipe! My husband is a picky eater and never goes back for seconds. He had two helpings of this recipe. This one will definitely go into my dinner rotation. Plus it was made in one pot, so super easy cleanup!
I will make this again! Love it!
I wasn’t expecting this to be as delicious as it was! My whole family loved this including a picky eater. The aroma of this baking is fabulous. Can’t wait for the leftovers.
What size casserole dish?
It says it in the instructions: 12 inch ovenproof skillet or dutch oven
Do you cook the rice first?
No, it’s made with white minute rice, uncooked
Yum!!!! This was fabulous. I made two tiny tweaks. 1- I saved my garlic until after the meat was almost entirely brown because I always find it burns otherwise. 2- We are trying to eliminate red meat so I used ground turkey and it was still very flavorful and delicious. So good- the rice really makes it for me! Thanks for another win.
This makes a lot of food, which is good because this casserole is delicious!
Made this with cauliflower rice by omitting the broth and pre-steaming the rice! Family hit!
Really tasty and much easier and faster than stuffing the peppers. I’m dairy free, so we added the cheese after it was served for those that wanted it. This recipe will definitely be made again!
Tried this recipe. It is absolutely delicious 😋
Thank you for sharing this with us!
Can I use regular rice , and if do his fo u think I should adjust?
If you don’t have minute rice, you can use brown rice. Use 2 cups cooked brown rice and reduce the amount of beef broth to only a 1/2 cup. I haven’t tried white rice but that might work too
I used regular rice! I pre-cooked regular jasmine rice in a rice cooker, then layered everything MINUS the broth (don’t need the extra liquid because it won’t be absorbed while the rice is cooking). Bake for 20 mins instead of 40. Perfect!
I used ground turkey (not a fan of it, but had my quota of red meat for the week.) I precooked Jasmine rice in the beef broth and it turned out very good!Could hardly tell the meat was ground turkey.
So much easier than stuffing peppers and I like having green pepper in every bite.
Made this recipe last night and loved how easy it was to make, it came together quickly with dinner ready in under an hour and the dinner was so flavorful, filling and just plain delicious! I can’t wait to try another recipe from The Clean Eating Couple!
Great flavor! Will be making it again and will, likely, try other ingredients, such as chorizo and black beans. Thank you for the recipe!
in the subs it says to use cooked brown rice instead of minute rice, but how much cooked brown rice would i need? 4 cups? it isn’t really clear :’D
Per the substitutions – Use 2 cups cooked brown rice and reduce the amount of beef broth to only a 1/2 cup.
Made this for dinner the other night for something different. I love stuffed peppers, but they can be a hassle to make. This was so easy to make and very filling! This also made lunch meal prep a breeze.
So good and flavorful!! We love stuffed peppers, so I was excited to give this a try. So easy to make!
A great healthy meal that is super easy to make!
This was so easy to make and gives you that same warm feeling as just regular stuffed peppers! I liked it more than regular stuffed peppers… I will be making this again!
So glad you liked it, Sarah! Thanks!
Made this last night it was super easy and it was a big hit. Tweaked it a bit using your substitution choices. Made can be made so many ways.. Definitely on the weekly menu!
So happy you enjoyed it, Dana!
Do I have to add the rice??
I wouldn’t recommend making this without rice.. it won’t be a casserole. if you wanted to just cook it on the stove you can but it will be pretty skimpy portions. Try our or if you don’t want rice.
Can I use regular rice instead of Minute Rice?
ll of our blog posts have a green box that says substitutions where we cover every ingredient. You can hit control f or command f and type in ‘subs’ to jump to it on any computer. Here’s what it says in the post: Minute Rice: If you don’t have minute rice, you can use brown rice. Use cooked brown rice and reduce the amount of beef broth to only a 1/2 cup. We have not tried regular cooked or raw white rice and wouldn’t recommend it. We do not recommend swapping the rice with cauliflower rice. If you need a grain free recipe try our Whole30 Stuffed Peppers.