Stuffed Green Peppers
Stuffed Green Peppers are an easy vegetarian and gluten free meal. Filled with Italian seasoned rice and tomatoes and baked in tomato sauce with mozzarella cheese on top!
On New Year’s Eve, Bob decided to become a vegetarian for the new year, sort of as a joke. After being teased by my family that he wouldn’t be able to do it, he became determined to stick with it. Five days and four vegetarian dinners later, he headed to Portillo’s for a Maxwell St. Polish Sausage. C’est la vie! His breaking point was the vegetarian curry dish he prepared using Garbanzo beans, spinach, and tofu . . .
One good thing that did come out of this phase was this recipe for Stuffed Green Peppers. I had seen it on Aggie’s Kitchen and thought this was the perfect opportunity to fit it in to our meal schedule.
We both really enjoyed this dinner. Probably my favorite part was the tomato sauce. Our peppers got really soft, so much of the pepper flavor leached into the sauce during baking and produced this wonderfully spiced flavor.
We will make these again, even though Bob is back to his regularly scheduled meat eating. I just realized that we changed this recipe a bit, so I’ll just type what we made and at the bottom provide the link to the original recipe (which includes ground meat and mushrooms).
Gluten Free Stuffed Peppers
This recipe is naturally gluten free!
Looking for More Vegetarian Recipes?
Check out these other vegetarian meals:
Lemon Orzo Salad
Tomates Provencales
Orzo with Parmesan and Basil
Tomato, Zucchini and Olive Orzo
Summer Vegetable Pasta
Simple Tomato Tart
Pasta with Sun Dried Tomatoes
Ricotta Gnudi in a Parmesan Broth
Mushroom and Mascarpone Ravioli
Double Tomato Bruschetta
Bruschetta Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Oven Dried Tomato Bruschetta
Baked Ziti Sorrentino
Spring Green Risotto
Five Veggie Four Cheese Lasagna
Baked Ricotta Cavatelli with Mascarpone Cheese Sauce
Creamy Orzo
Lighter Eggplant Parmesan
Leek and Potato Soup
Roasted Tomato Soup – Panera Copycat
Panzanella – Italian Tomato Bread Salad
Caprese Salad Skewers
Stuffed Green Peppers
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked brown rice
- 14.5 ounces chicken broth (approx. 1 3/4 cups)
- 3 large green peppers (all around the same size so they cook evenly)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion (chopped)
- 3 garlic cloves (minced)
- 29 ounces canned diced Italian seasoned tomatoes (2 cans)
- 15 ounces canned tomato sauce
- 1/2 tablespoon dried basil
- 1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1/2 tablespoon dried thyme
- salt and pepper
- shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
Cook the Rice:
- Bring the chicken broth to a boil, add 1 cup rice, bring back to boil and then turn the temperature all the way down to let simmer, cover tightly with lid.
- Allow rice to cook for about 30 minutes. Don't take the lid off during the cook time. Meanwhile prepare the peppers and make the filling.
Prepare the Peppers:
- Cut the tops of peppers off so there is a hole, remove ribs and seed on the inside, wash them.
- Arrange the peppers in a deep baking dish. Sprinkle the inside with salt and pepper.
Make the Filling:
- Add the olive oil to a large skillet and heat until shimmering.
- Saute the chopped onion and minced garlic. Season with salt and pepper.
- When soft, season with thyme, basil and oregano. Add the diced tomatoes and cook through.
- When rice is finished cooking, add it to skillet and mix everything together.
Fill and Bake the Peppers:
- Spoon filling into each pepper.
- Pour the tomato sauce all over peppers. Add water to leftover sauce in can (about 1/4 of the can), swirl around to get all the sauce then add to the bottom of the baking dish. Wrap tightly with foil or place a lid on top.
- Bake for about 1 hour, or until peppers are soft.
- Remove foil, add mozzarella cheese, and bake another 20 minutes to finish off and melt cheese.
Haha – my hubby could never be a vegetarian either! These look delicious and I love that you used brown rice! I really miss Portillo’s.
OMG..my mom used to make these when I was a kid!!!!!
Meghan, I LOVE your food blog! I haven’t had time to make any of these yet, but everything looks and sounds delicious.
But Bob as a vegetarian is probably the funniest thing I have ever heard in my life. I dont think we have a SINGLE relative who is a vegetarian! It’s just not in the genes 🙂
I’m so happy you guys enjoyed these Meghan!! Yours look so yummy!! I love that you made them vegetarian, great idea.
Your blog is great!!
How much weight has Bob gained since you started this blog, Meghan? 😉
Cari – Thanks so much! I was amused by the vegetarianism as well. Not that he eats meat THAT much, but when he does, he enjoys it 🙂
Liz – He has not gained any weight since I started the blog since I haven’t changed the way I cook, just started documenting it! It probably seems like I make a lot of desserts by the posts though, but everything I’ve put up (with the exception of the Shamrock cookies) has been made throughout the last year, not just in the last 2 weeks 🙂