I think bell peppers are totally underrated, do you? What I mean is, I eat them daily, but when someone asks me what my favorite vegetable is, I never say “bell peppers.” They are in my current go to breakfast scramble, and many of our weekly go to’s including chili, burrito bowls, and buddha bowls. One of my favorite ways to enjoy bell peppers, where they truly get to be the star of the show, are these stuffed bell peppers! We’ve tried many stuffed bell pepper recipes and this recipe with quinoa and ground turkey has been tried, tested, and approved by many. We make ours dairy free because my better half can’t have dairy (and to be honest I feel better when I limit it as well) but you can definitely use cow’s milk cheese instead of vegan cheese in this recipe if you want, or no cheese products at all!
Stuffed Bell Peppers
Ingredients
- 6 large bell peppers, any color
- 1 tbsp. olive oil (or non stick spray/non stick pan)
- 1 medium white onion
- 2 cloves garlic (or more to taste)
- 1-1.5 pounds 99% lean ground turkey
- 1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
- 1 cup quinoa, uncooked
- 2 handfuls spinach (optional)
- 1 8 oz. bag shredded cheese of choice (we like the sodelicious mozzerella shreds)
- salt and pepper , to taste
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and line a 9 x 13 dish with aluminum foil.
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Wash the bell peppers, cut of the tops, and remove the seeds from the inside. Place each bell pepper “standing up” in the dish. Bake the bell peppers for about 7-10 minutes until slightly softened, remove from oven and set aside.
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Meanwhile, heat olive oil on medium heat and sauté the onion and garlic until translucent, about 2-4 minutes. Cook quinoa as directed on package (usually 1 cup quinoa:2 cups water ratio).
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Add the ground turkey to the pan with garlic and onion and finely chop the ground turkey while cooking.
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Once turkey is cooked through add the crushed tomatoes and reduce heat to medium low and simmer until quinoa is ready. Once cooked, stir quinoa into the turkey and crushed tomato mixture.
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Optional: add a couple handfuls of spinach to the mixture and stir until wilted.
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Fill the peppers by alternating a layer of cheese with a layer of the turkey/quinoa/sauce mixture until each pepper is completely full! Top with cheese and bake for about 20 minutes, until cheese is melted and brown on top and internal temp is at least 165 degrees F.
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Remove from the oven, slice a pepper in half, and enjoy! Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
I love how easy and versatile this recipes is. These stuffed bell peppers can be made with regular or non dairy cheese and any kind of meat/protein option! We’ve never tried it with tofu or beans, but I’m sure it would be delicious as well! If you give it a try definitely let me know how it turned out in the comments as well! Also, if your peppers are on the smaller side and you end up with some extra “stuffing” I recommend putting it in a separate container and just adding a bit to each of the peppers when you reheat them. Pro tip: definitely recommend chopping up the bell peppers (or at least slicing them in half) before reheating to make sure the pepper is fully reheated.
Did you try this recipe? Make any substitutions? Let us know how they turned out in the comments below!
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