These vegan stuffed peppers with rice and kidney beans make the perfect weeknight dinner! The recipe is super easy to make, vegan, insanely delicious, and packed with protein.
Why This Recipe Works
These vegan stuffed bell peppers make such a great dinner! I mean who could say no to vibrant bell peppers, roasted to perfection and filled with a mixture of fluffy rice, savory vegan ground meat and kidney beans? All topped with a bit of melted vegan cheese.
This recipe screams pure comfort food for me! It’s not only packed with flavor, but it’s also incredibly nutritious and loaded with plant-based protein and vitamins.
I’m a huge fan of stuffed peppers and over the years I’ve made many variations of this dish. The bell peppers aren’t just colorful vessels; they bring a subtle sweetness and a satisfying crunch that goes perfectly with the savory filling.
Overall, this recipe is easy to make, budget-friendly, and incredibly versatile. Don’t like kidney beans? Swap them for black beans. Prefer quinoa over rice? Go for it!
Plus, this dish is also meal-prep friendly. You can prepare it ahead and enjoy the delicious leftovers for days. We like the vegan stuffed peppers best with a big green salad. And don’t forget to sprinkle them with freshly chopped parsley before serving them for extra flavor.
Or serve them with a bit of guacamole or mashed avocado on top. So yummy and this dish well keep you feel full and nourished for hours.
So grab your bell peppers and give this recipe a try. Trust me, you will love it!
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Rice – you need cooked rice, either brown rice or parboiled rice. I like to use leftover rice from the day before.
- Bell Peppers – six bell peppers (I used different colors)
- Red Onion & Garlic
- Kidney Beans – either use canned or cook dried ones in an Instant Pot. You could also replace them with black beans.
- Spices – paprika and ground cumin.
- Vegan Ground Meat – use your favorite beefless veggie ground meat. Either frozen or cooled.
- Diced Tomatoes
- Tabasco
- Vegan Shredded Cheese – use your favorite brand. It should melt well.
- Green Onions
- Fresh Parsley
How To Make This Recipe
1. Step: Finely chop the red onion and the garlic. Heat some oil in a large pan and sauté the onion for 2-3 minutes until it becomes translucent. Then add the garlic. Cook for another minute.
2. Step: Then add the cooked rice, the beefless veggie ground meat, the canned diced tomatoes, and the kidney beans. Season with paprika powder, cumin, salt, pepper, and tabasco. Cook for 5 minutes.
3. Step: In the meantime, remove the tops, seeds, and the membranes of the bell peppers and discard. Place the peppers in a baking dish.
4. Step: Spoon an equal amount of the rice mixture into the bell peppers. Sprinkle with vegan cheese. Then carefully add some water or vegetable broth (3/4 cup) to the bottom of the baking dish.
5. Step: Preheat your oven to 350 °F and bake the vegan stuffed peppers for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley and green onions after baking. Serve immediately.
Tips & Tricks
- I just cut the tops off my bell peppers and then filled them. To make eating a bit easier, I cut them in halves after they were cooked. However, you can also cut them in halves from the beginning. Just note that you need a bigger baking dish in this case. Besides, you might have to reduce the baking time a bit.
- If you’re not a fan of store-bought “fake meat”, you could replace the vegan ground meat with tofu like I did for my vegan chili recipe.
- I recommend using leftover cooked rice for this recipe. This way the recipe will be a lot faster and it actually works better with leftover rice than with freshly cooked rice, which tends to be a bit clumpy.
- Usually, I use brown rice or parboiled rice for my stuffed peppers. But the recipe also works with basmati rice.
Variations
If you want to play with the recipe a bit and make some changes, you could use:
- black beans instead of kidney beans
- vegan chili made of tofu instead of the store-bought vegan ground meat
- homemade cashew cheese sauce instead of store-bought vegan cheese
Storing
Stored in an airtight container in the fridge, they will last up to 4 days.
Freezing
The stuffed peppers can be frozen after being baked. Just make sure that the peppers have cooled off completely before freezing them. The easiest way to freeze peppers is using a freezer safe baking dish with a lid.
This way, you can directly place the frozen peppers in the oven after removing the lid. Bake them at 350 °F until they’re completely thawed.
You could also thaw them first in the fridge overnight. This way the baking time will be shorter. Serve them with freshly chopped parsley and green onions.
Reheating
You have two options to reheat the stuffed peppers:
- you can reheat them in the microwave (this is the easiest way).
- you can reheat them in the oven (cover them with aluminium foil and bake them for 20-25 minutes at 350 °F)
Making Ahead
Making this recipe ahead of time works pretty well. However, I recommend stuffing the peppers and putting them into the baking dish and then storing them in the fridge until you’re ready to serve them. Then just put them in the oven and bake them.
This way you will save time later on, but you still have a freshly baked dish. You could of course also bake it ahead and then reheat it later. But since the baking time isn’t that much of a difference, I’d recommend to wait until baking them until you’re ready to serve them.
Related Recipes
I Love To Hear From You!
I hope you like these vegan stuffed peppers as much as we do around here.
If you give them a try, I’d love to know what you think about it. Just leave me a comment and a star rating below. Your comments really make my day!
You like my recipes and want to see more? Then follow me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!
Sina
Vegan Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients
- 6 bell peppers (or 4 very large)
- 2 cups cooked rice
- 1 small red onion, chopped
- 2 garlic
- 1 can kidney beans
- 1 teaspoons paprika powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 12 oz veggie ground meat
- 2 cups diced tomatoes
- tabasco, to taste
- salt, to taste
- black pepper, to taste
- 1/2 cup vegan cheese
- 2 green onions, sliced
- 2-3 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley
Instructions
- Finely chop the red onion and the garlic. Heat some oil in a large pan and sauté the onion for 2-3 minutes until it becomes translucent. Then add the garlic. Cook for another minute.
- Then add the cooked rice, the beefless veggie ground meat, the canned diced tomatoes, and the kidney beans. Season with paprika powder, cumin, salt, pepper, and tabasco. Cook for 5 minutes.
- In the meantime, remove the tops, seeds, and the membranes of the bell peppers and discard. Place the peppers in a baking dish.
- Spoon an equal amount of the rice mixture into the bell peppers. Sprinkle with vegan cheese. Then carefully add some water or vegetable broth (3/4 cup) to the bottom of the baking dish.
- Preheat your oven to 350 °F and bake the vegan stuffed peppers for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley and green onions after baking. Serve immediately.
Notes
- I just cut the tops off my bell peppers and then filled them. To make eating a bit easier, I cut them in halves after they were cooked. However, you can also cut them in halves from the beginning. Just note that you need a bigger baking dish in this case. Besides, you might have to reduce the baking time a bit.
- If you’re not a fan of store-bought “fake meat”, you could replace the vegan ground meat with tofu like I did for my vegan chili recipe.
- I recommend using leftover cooked rice for this recipe. This way the recipe will be a lot faster and it actually works better with leftover rice than with freshly cooked rice, which tends to be a bit clumpy.
- Usually, I use brown rice or parboiled rice for my stuffed peppers. But the recipe also works with basmati rice.
Charlene
Loved them!
We are plant based no oil so did not add cheese.
Good for our excess peppers from garden!
Thanks
Jessica
Just made these last night and they were delicious! So full of flavor! My non-vegan parents each had some and said they tasted better than real meat stuffed peppers. My dad actually only wanted to try a sliver and then ended up eating the whole pepper haha! They both wanted to take some for work today. Needless to say it was a hit! With vegans and meat eaters alike!!
Leah
Big hit with my family! We eat vegetarian, so I used real cheese, but I didn’t change anything else. Thanks for the recipe!!
Eminence Home Care Vijayawada
I was looking for vegan recipes. Thanks so much for sharing.
Kimberly
I saw this recipe on Pinterest yesterday when I was looking for vegan stuffed peppers and I tried it right away. The whole family liked it! I made some small changes (black beans instead of kidney beans and I also added some frozen corn). Turned out really well!