When I was un grade school, I remember not liking cheesy stuffed peppers. I’m not sure if it was a childhood aversion to bell peppers or that they often seemed massive and difficult to eat. Whatever it was, I’ve come to enjoy the lightness of roasted pepper paired with the substantial ground beef filling.
Most cheesy stuffed peppers use rice mixed with the meat. While I enjoy rice in the mixture, I wanted to make these cheesy stuffed peppers a little lighter and more accessible on weeknights. I don’t know about you, but there are times I don’t have the time or energy to wait 20 minutes for the rice to cook, and I rarely make enough rice for a meal to have copious leftovers to use in an additional recipe. That second problem could be remedied with better planning on my part, I suppose, but I digress. I’ve substituted the rice here with riced cauliflower. I used frozen cauliflower, but you can also use fresh that’s been pulsed a few times in a food processor until it resembles small pebbles.
The cauliflower adds some needed texture and dimension to break up the meat, but it’s light enough that you don’t feel weighed down after eating a whole pepper.
Cheesy Stuffed Peppers Recipe
Ingredients
4 medium green pepper (green capsicum) - cut in half with stems and seed discarded- 1 pound ground beef (minced beef)
- 1 medium yellow onion - chopped small
- 3 cloves garlic - diced
- 1 cup cauliflower - riced
- 28 ounces tomato - diced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese
- ⅓ cup guacamole
- ⅓ cup cilantro (coriander)
Instructions
- Open your can of tomatoes and spoon a little bit of the juice into a 9×13 baking dish to avoid sticking. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Cut your peppers lengthwise and remove the stems and seeds. Place them aside until ready to fill and bake.
- Heat the olive oil in a big sauté pan over medium-high heat, add the onion and cook until soft and translucent.
- Put the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant; about a minute.
- Add the ground beef and cook until brown, breaking it up as it cooks.
- Add the cauliflower rice, canned tomatoes, salt, pepper, and other spices you want to use. Cook for approximately 10 to 15 minutes or until some of the juice from the tomatoes cooks down and thickens slightly.
- Remove from heat and spoon the filling into the pepper halves, placing them on your prepared baking sheet. If using mozzarella, top your desired number of peppers with the cheese.
- Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes, I also like to broil the peppers on high for a couple of minutes to get the cheese extra toasty.
- Top with your desired garnishes, and enjoy.
