My Favorite Stuffed Green Peppers

Green peppers are stuffed with seasoned ground beef, rice, and onions and topped with mozzarella cheese and baked into a savory side dish.

• Preparation Time: 15 mins
• Cooking Time: 50 mins
• Total Time: 1 hr 5 mins
• Calories: 504 Calories

Ingredients

• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 cup brown rice
• 1 teaspoon olive oil, or as needed
• 6 large green bell peppers, halved and seeded
• 2 cups finely shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2.5 cups water
• 1.5 pounds lean ground beef

Recipe Instructions

Step 1

Bring 2 1/2 cups water to a boil in a saucepan; add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until the rice is tender, 20 minutes.

Step 2

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Drizzle olive oil in a 9x13-inch casserole dish.

Step 3

Fill a separate saucepan with water and bring to a boil; add green bell peppers and simmer for 3 minutes. Transfer peppers to a bowl of ice water until peppers are cooled. Arrange peppers in the prepared casserole dish.

Step 4

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir beef in the hot skillet until browned and crumbly, 5 to 7 minutes; drain and discard grease. Return skillet to heat; mix onion and cooked rice into ground beef. Pour tomato sauce into ground beef mixture and stir to combine.

Step 5

Mix garlic, coriander, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and black pepper into ground beef mixture. Simmer until flavors have combined, 10 minutes. Remove from heat and spoon 2 to 3 tablespoons ground beef mixture into each bell pepper half. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over each filled pepper. Cover casserole dish with aluminum foil.

Step 6

Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove aluminum foil and continue to bake until cheese is bubbling and melted, about 15 more minutes.