The Easiest Unstuffed Peppers Recipe! These Deconstructed Stuffed Peppers come together in under 30 minutes for an easy, delicious dinner! Healthy and gluten free!
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This Unstuffed Bell Pepper Skillet will be your new favorite weeknight dinner!
Savory flavors of ground beef, tomato sauce, rice, and bright bell peppers come together in this easy to make dinner that is the perfect balance of convenience and wholesome goodness!
In just 30 minutes, you’ll have a hearty and satisfying dinner on your table, leaving you more time to relax and savor every bite.
For more quick healthy recipes, check out these Quick Easy Healthy Meals for Dinner!
Why we love these Unstuffed Pepper Bowls
There is a lot to love about this unstuffed pepper bowl recipe. It’s one of our favorite dinners because it’s:
- One Pan – Everyone loves a one pan dinner which means fewer dishes at the end of the meal!
- Dinner In 30 Minutes – This skillet recipe is so quick and easy. You can have dinner on the table in less than an hour!
- Simple Ingredients – Most of these ingredients are pantry staples and there are only 9 ingredients and some spices needed for these delicious unstuffed peppers!
Unstuffed Bell Pepper Recipe ingredients
To make these unstuffed peppers you’ll need:
- olive oil
- ground beef
- onion, garlic
- pepper, dried oregano, dried basil, dried parsley
- tomato sauce
- dry white rice
- beef broth
- red bell pepper
- mozzarella cheese
You can find substitutions for all of these ingredients below in the green shaded box.
How to make Unstuffed Bell Peppers
- In a sauté pan, heat olive oil and brown ground beef for 10 minutes. Add onions and garlic and sauté for an additional 5 minutes.
- Add spices, tomato sauce, white rice, beef broth and bell peppers to the pot. Stir, cover and bring to a boil.
- Then reduce to a simmer and cook for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally until rice is cooked.
- Once cooked, top with cheese, cover and let the cheese melt.
Unstuffed Pepper substitutions and additions
Olive Oil: You can substitute avocado oil, butter, or ghee.
Ground Beef: We like 85/15 ground beef. Feel free to use leaner ground beef depending on what you like. To make vegetarian you can use cooked lentils or ground beef substitute. You’ll need to adjust your cooking time. I haven’t tried making this with ground turkey or ground chicken but I think it would work.
Tomato Sauce: You can use your own homemade tomato sauce, but we prefer canned tomato sauce. Note that canned tomato sauce and jarred pasta sauce are very different, jarred pasta sauce is much thicker and usually has seasonings added to it. Look for plain pureed tomatoes or crushed tomatoes!
Broth: Any broth or stock (broth and stock are the same) can be used in any soup recipe. Beef Broth, Chicken Broth, or vegetable broth all work interchangeably. I always use low or no-salt broth.
White rice: Brown rice should work as a white rice substitute in this recipe, but it will take much longer to cook and you may need more broth. I wouldn’t recommend subbing cauliflower rice because I think it would be very soggy.
Cheese: Cheese is optional on top. We like freshly grated mozzarella but you can totally make this dairy free!
How to serve this Stuffed Pepper Bowl
These pepper bowls are a complete meal by themselves, but you can also:
- Top with fresh mozzarella cheese (or cheese of choice)
- Serve alongside a simple salad like our Caeser Salad
- Serve with a side of Grilled Vegetables in Foil
Deconstructed Stuffed Peppers FAQs
If you want crunchy peppers, you won’t want to cook them as long, but in this recipe, they will be softer.
You can, but I typically don’t when I make Stuffed Peppers, but this recipe doesn’t call for stuffing the peppers.
You can freeze this unstuffed pepper recipe for 3 months.
How to store Unstuffed Peppers
Storing: This will last in the refrigerator for up to 4 days in an airtight container
Freezing: You can freeze this recipe for up to 3 months. We like these containers for freezing!
If you need more freezer friendly recipes check out our Fill Your Freezer Ebook with 22 easy freezer meals!
Reheating: You can reheat this recipe in the microwave, toaster oven, oven or on the stove.
Other healthy dinner recipes:
Looking for other easy meals? Check out these 40+ Healthy Dinner Recipes. Click here to grab our free healthy 30 minute dinners cookbook.
Unstuffed Bell Peppers
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 lb ground beef
- ½ cup diced onion
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
- 15 oz can tomato sauce
- 1 cup dry white rice
- 2 cup beef broth low or no salt
- 3 cups red bell pepper diced (orange or yellow work too!)
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- In a large sauté pan, heat olive oil. Brown ground beef for 10 minutes until no longer pink. Add onions and garlic and sauté for an additional 5 minutes.
- Add spices, tomato sauce, white rice, beef broth and bell peppers to the pot. Stir together, cover and bring to a boil.
- Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and cook for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally until rice is cooked.
- Once rice is cooked, top with mozzarella cheese, cover and let the cheese melt.
katherine morris says
I love stuffed bell peppers and I went ahead and just use green. It was delicious and easy and I already had everything
Sally says
Delicious and so easy to make. Like it better than regular stuffed peppers. I only had chicken stock and cheddar cheese in my pantry so I subbed them in and it came out great. Thanks
Sandy says
Recipe was simple to make and tasted good. I will definitely make it again.
Katherine says
Made this a few hours ago and it was a hit!!! I used ground turkey, brown rice, 1 red & 1 yellow pepper & instead of beef broth, I used chicken broth. I took it to my parents house thinking I was going to come back home with some and nope – it’s all gone! But I was able to get enough for 5 people to eat off of it! Next time I’m going to add sausage with ground turkey and double everything! Thank you for sharing your recipe! I love The Clean Eating Couple!!
JoAnn Burdette says
As written the recipe is delicious. Mine had too much liquid. We ate as a soup with freshly grated parmigiana on top. A salad and crusty bread made it just fine. I don’t know if I will try to reduce the beef broth to one cup. With the tomato sauce and only one cup of broth the rice should be able to absorb the liquid and then I will top with mozzarella cheese. Hubby liked it as a soup/stew.
The Clean Eating Couple says
Are you sure you used the right type of rice? this definitely should not be a soup… Next time maybe cook for a few more minutes and see if that helps the liquid absorb.
Dianne Stoner says
So, so good!! Easy to prepare although the peppers and onions do require a little time to get chopped up. But, it’s a one pan meal!! Definitely make it!!
Vera Barroso says
Oh my goodness this was such a good weeknight meal !! It was delicious !! ( I added a little salt once plated ) and super easy !! Truly a one pot meal !!