These vegan stuffed peppers with rice are super easy to make and they are so delicious! Besides, they are packed with protein. They make a great weeknight dinner for the whole family!
I still can’t believe that I used to hate bell peppers as a kid. Now, I absolutely LOVE them. Especially in the combination with rice and beans. Soooo good and healthy! I absolutely love making these vegan stuffed peppers for dinner. They’re best with a big green salad!
What You Need For These Vegan Stuffed Peppers
Except for the vegan ground meat and the vegan cheese, this recipe calls for very basic ingredients. However, these days you should also be able to find vegan cheese and vegan ground meat in most grocery stores.
You need:
- cooked rice (brown rice or parboiled rice)
- six bell peppers (I used different colors)
- one red onion
- garlic
- kidney beans (either canned or cooked in an Instant Pot)
- paprika powder
- cumin
- beefless veggie ground meat
- diced tomatoes
- tabasco
- vegan shredded cheese
- green onions
- fresh parsley
As always, you can find the full ingredient list at the end of this post in a separate recipe box.
How To Make Vegan Stuffed Peppers
STEP 1: 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.
STEP 2: 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.
STEP 3: In the meantime, remove the tops, seeds, and the membranes of the bell peppers and discard. Place the peppers in a baking dish.
STEP 4: 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.
STEP 5: 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.
Recipe 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.
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
Vegan Stuffed Peppers – FAQs:
Can stuffed peppers be frozen?
Yes, 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.
Can stuffed peppers be reheated?
Yes, you have two options to reheat 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)
Could I make these stuffed peppers ahead of time?
Yes, making these vegan stuffed peppers ahead of time works pretty well. However, I recommend stuffing the peppers and putting them into the baking dish and then store 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.
Other Vegan Recipes With Bell Peppers You Might Like:
- Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers in the Slow Cooker
- Vegan Roasted Pepper Sauce
- Red Bell Pepper Pesto with Almonds
- One Pot Vegetable Rice with Bell Peppers and Peas
I LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU GUYS!
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!
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Sina – xx
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.
Loved them!
We are plant based no oil so did not add cheese.
Good for our excess peppers from garden!
Thanks
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!!
Big hit with my family! We eat vegetarian, so I used real cheese, but I didn’t change anything else. Thanks for the recipe!!
I was looking for vegan recipes. Thanks so much for sharing.
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!