We get loads of requests for meatless meals. Both from those avoiding meat for dietary reasons, and more commonly for those trying to incorporate meatless meals for budget purposes. I’m not gonna lie- I like meat. A lot. Which is why it takes a really great meatless meal to make me happy and this one fits the bill. (There’s also an awesome veggie-packed meatless taquito recipe in our cook book. One of my faves!)Start with bright, sweet peppers. You can use red, yellow, or orange. Just don’t use green. I know they’re way cheaper, but just don’t do it, okay? Practice saying no to drugs, and also no to green peppers- for this recipe anyway. They’re not sweet enough. I like to buy the packs from Costco that have red, yellow, and orange in them but for this batch I just have red.
Slice off the top of the pepper. You may also need to trim the bottom so it can stand up. When you’re buying your peppers take a look at them and try to find ones that are roughly the same shape (shorter and squatty are better than tall and skinny like in the picture below) and with even bottoms. Also, I just want you to know that I am avoiding all sorts of jokes right now involving the words short and squatty, tall and skinny, and even bottoms. I’ll just leave it to your own imaginations.
Then use a sharp knife to clean out the inside, removing any seeds and membrane (the white stuff. have I ever mentioned that “membrane” is on the list of words I detest? Especially when referring to food.)
The peppers get dropped into a pot of salted water. When making any stuffed pepper, this is a great step to remember. If you skip the boiling they often end up crunchy on the outside. These are boiled just enough to soften the bite, but not so much to make them mushy.
Pull those babies out with a pair of tongs (as opposed to say, your hands. Which is something yours truly would do…)
and let them drain.
This part is sort of ingenious. I felt like I was breaking all sorts of rules. You are going to throw your rice into that giant pot of water. That’s right, living on the wild side people. No measuring, no perfectly steaming in a lidded pot. Just boil it in there until it’s cooked and then drain out the water. Great, right?
While that’s boiling away start your filling. Saute diced onions, jalapenos (or green chilies) and garlic
add in corn (fresh frozen corn- say no to drugs, green peppers, and canned corn. Got it?) black beans, green onions and some chipotle chili powder. And salt and pepper too.
When that’s all warmed through, stir in the rice, a can of tomatoes, some cheese, and cilantro.
See all of the black spots on those tomatoes? They’re good black spots. I love “Fire Roasted” tomatoes in recipes like this. Say yes to fire roasted tomatoes.
Then you just arrange the peppers in a dish- it helps if they’re touching each other so everyone stands up.
Sprinkle some more cheese on top
and a little bit of crushed tortilla chips on top of that. I used about 1 tortilla chip for each pepper.
Bake ’em in the oven and everything gets warm, the cheese gets melted, and the chips crunch up on top. They’re super flavorful and very filling!
I served these with a quick Southwest Salad (seriously, I love those salad packs when you need something fast and easy) and some extra tortilla chips for scooping up the filling.
Southwest Stuffed Bell Peppers
Slightly adapted from America’s Test Kitchen
4 very large or 6 medium sweet peppers (red, yellow, or orange)
1 Tbs salt
1/2 C white rice (or brown if you want to take the time to cook it), quinoa also works
2 Tbs olive oil
1 onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 – 1 jalapeno, minced (or you could sub a small 3oz can of mild green chilies)
1 14oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen corn kernels
2 green onions, sliced
1/2-1 tsp chipotle chili powder (you can start with 1/2 and add more to taste)
1 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/4 black pepper, plus more to taste
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, preferably fire roasted
1 1/4 C jack or pepperjack cheese, divided
3-4 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro
tortilla chips, just a handful and more for serving if desired.
Preheat oven to 350. Prepare peppers by washing, slicing tops off, and removing insides. Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil and add 1 tablespoon salt. Boil whole peppers for about 3-4 minutes, until they begin to soften. Remove from water with tongs and place on paper towels to drain.
Add rice to boiling water and cook until tender, about 13 minutes. Drain thoroughly.
Heat oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions, garlic, and jalapeno (or chilies) and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add corn, beans, green onions, chipotle chili powder, kosher salt, and pepper. Stir until corn and beans are heated through, about 5 minutes. Place peppers in a baking dish. Remove skillet from heat and add rice, tomatoes, 1 cup cheese, and cilantro. Stir to combine well and give it a taste. Add additional salt, pepper, and chipotle powder to your liking. Then evenly divide mixture between peppers.
Top peppers with remaining 1/4 cup cheese (or more if you can fit it on there 🙂 and crushed tortilla chips.
Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.
Questions & Reviews
I love this recipe! Way more than the sum of its parts, and one of the very few vegetarian dishes my family will happily eat! I’m going to try it with quinoa this week – for anyone who’s tried it, did you cook it the same way as for the rice, or did you cook it separately?
Glad you liked it Jen! You could probably do the quinoa either way. If you have time I’d probably cook it normally and just have it all ready.
Made this for dinner tonight and it was absolutely DELICIOUS!! Thank you and I will be checking back with your blog soon!
i just finished making your stuffed peppers and i have to say this is the best stuffed red pepper dish i have ever made!!! a NICE change!!!!thank you!!
this looks amazing…and perfect easy weeknight meal! YUMMM
I just made these last night……….so delicious! I will definitely make these again! Thank you:)
Um, just made these!! Wow! SO YUMMY!!! I had to substitute in canned corn, regular diced tomatoes, and normal chili powder, and it is still amazing!! I can’t really imagine it being any better, but I’m sure it might be with the right ingredients! Thanks for the amazing recipes!
WW POINTS PLUS: I just figured this recipe on eTools for Weight Watchers, and if you make this with only 1 cup of cheese, each stuffed pepper is 8 points plus each- That is when you divide the recipe into 6 servings. If you have only 4 peppers (which I only have:-) then each pepper is 12 points each. I guess that’s assuming I can stuff all the filling into four peppers. Anyway, hope that helps:-)
I just found your site from a friend who posted one of your recipes on facebook. You both are so funny and I can’t wait to try out your recipes!! Thank so much for the entertainment and I’m sure awesome food!! 🙂
I swear I LOVE LOVE LOVE you gals! Peppers (ok don’t push me – they are green 🙁 ) on sale at Fred Meyer this week 3/$1! I got like 9! 🙂 I thought I would slice and freeze for sautee stuff – then I thought hey.. I have left over rice – some soy chorizo.. I wonder if my FAVORITE blog has a stuffed pepper recipe?? And sure enough.. 🙂
You never seize to amaze me.. from bridal showers to special treats to healthy wholesome dinners – you NEVER fail. (BTW second a mention above – my soon to be husband will try anything i make if I say its from Best bites 🙂 )
(And I have 4 cookbooks – I give them away after I make a meal full of your recipes – always a fav!)
we do meatless Mondays and it occurs to me that this could be a pretty good freezer meal. I try to plan all of our meals for the month and make most, if not all, of them a double or triple batch so I can freeze them for later. I think it would be best to flash freeze them before cooking, but I would love to hear your input.
BTW- when planning meals, I come here, go to once a month mom, the smitten kitchen and everyday food exclusively ( i come here first though). My kids love the pizza bites and my husband is a huge fan of the taquitos! I can’t get enough of the thai beef skewers- Oh! and the chili lime steak salad was a huge hit too! I *may have* eaten a lot of the dressing with a spoon. I’m sure these will go over just as well
I’ve never frozen them so I can’t be sure, but yes, I would probably flash freeze before cooking like you suggested. Let me know how it works!
Anybody figure out the PP+ on this? Looks so yummy.
Great meal. It was a little spicy for my kids, so I think I’ll tone it down next time. I was also thinking that your recipe for Spanich rice (w/ black beans and corn added) would be FANTASTIC stuffed into peppers.
This is a wonderful recipe. I did have to add extra rice since I got it a little hot with the low end of the chipolte chili powder. I only had 2 red peppers so we used the rest of the filling to make burritos. My husband really enjoyed this too.
so I made these with kidney beans, green peppers, canned corn and cheddar cheese. They were very delicious. I think the tip about boiling the peppers before you bake them is GREAT! I’tried to make these before and they never turned out right, but this time they were a winner.
I am going to try this recipe tonight. I have loved everything I’ve tried from you all. But….I am going to use green peppers and canned corn. It’s what I have and what I can afford. Some might say “frozen is only a dollar or so more than canned…etc” but every penny counts and it eventually all adds up to a lot. Not to mention how it helps with the food storage I need to rotate! I think it’s important to remember that when times are tough and people are pinching pennies, sometimes we all have to make do with what we have and what we can afford. Also, I don’t have black beans, I have kidney beans, so I’ll be using those instead. Hopefully it will turn out alright 🙂 I’ll let you know!!
I can’t remember if I commented on this- but I made it again and it is a FAVORITE here at our house! One of the few vegetarian dishes that my hubbie doesn’t ask for the meat! we love this. and I feel so good filling up with all of this yummy healthy stuff. P.S. Jt also had the brilliant idea of drizzling the cilantro lime dressing over the top!! it is soooo good!
DELICIOUS!! quick and easy and yummy! i used instant brown rice and it didn’t interfere with the cooking time. thanks!! we’ll have this again for sure!
I made these least weekend and everyone LOVED them. I mean LOVED them. First they tried to complain because there was no meat but it got very quiet as they started gobbling them up 😉
I love you guys and all these recipes – i recommend the site to everyone. Everything i’ve ever tried from here has been a hit 🙂
I made these tonight for dinner, and they were delicious!! My husband is actually on his second pepper right now. I’m pregnant so I’m looking for new ways to get more veggies into my diet, as well as cut back on the grocery budget to help us save some more money before this little one comes, and this did both. Very yummy and fresh flavor. Made some home made guacamole and a salad to go along with it. My husband told me he gave me extra wife points for a yummy dinner. 🙂
Thanks for the recipe!
I made these for dinner last night (and am eating one for lunch today) and WOW they were delish! I made them with brown rice and I liked the texture that it brought. Thanks again! Y’all make me look awesome!
I just made these tonight, they are so tasty! I’ll definitely be making them again. Thank you!
These are FABULOUS! Even, husband approved! 🙂
Also – just got your cookbook for my birthday and it is amazing! I absolutely love it! 🙂
These are SOOOO yummy. I love all things mexican and these satisfied my craving. I made them once with rice and once with quinoa. I think I prefer the quinoa. Thanks for another great recipe.
Try it with a salad on the side with one of our yummy lime-cilantro dressings!
Would you serve anything with this? Or is it a whole meal on its own? I'm picturing a big dinner plate with one pepper on it…
These are fabulous! My husband who is also a meat lover kept saying, "Wow. This is an A+ meal. Wow. This is so good!" Score!!! He also asked if it was an ourbestbites and when I said yes, he said, "How on earth do they come up with all this stuff?" Good question! How on earth do you? 🙂
Oh how yummy! Great minds think alike, I just made chili and cornbread stuffed peppers, yum!
My Mom used to make stuffed bell peppers when I was little and I always remembered just hating them. They were green bell peppers though and they were stuffed with a terrible Spanish rice mixture. When I saw this recipe, I had to try it! I LOVED these and so did my husband! Thank you! They were delicious!
Just finished eating and I LOVED this recipe. So quick especially when you have leftover rice in the fridge already and waiting to be mixed in. I loved the crunchy topping!
I did only use 1 TBS of oil & reduced fat cheese, and when I figured out the points plus for the none-zero ingredients (there werent many) I think it was 6 points for 4 servings and I am stuffed from these stuffed peppers. Cant wait to eat the leftover for lunch.
Made this tonight and LOVED it! My 2 year old gobbled it up too, thanks for posting!